The poem describes the narrator's dependence on his telephone for happiness. It allows him to feel connected to others despite being separated by distance. Without it, he compares himself to a bear sleeping through winter. But when the telephone rings, it brings him joy and alerts him to news from friends, springing him to life like the coming of spring. The telephone provides a sense of community in the lonely modern city.

2. Learning Competency
Analyze literature as
means of connecting to the
world

3. Topic 1
By: Edward Field

4. My happiness depends on an electric appliance
And I do not mind giving it so much credit
With life in this city being what it is
Each person separated from friends
By a tangle of subways and buses
Yes my telephone is my joy
It tells me that I am in the world and wanted
It rings and I am alerted to love or gossip
I go comb my hair which begins to sparkle
Without it I was like a bear in a cave

5. Drowsing through a shadowy winter
It rings and springs has come
I stretch and amble out into the
sunshine
Hungry again as I pick up the receiver
For the human voice and the good
news of friends

6. VOCABULARY
1.Amble- slow walk
2.Drowsing- sleeping
3.Credit- appreciation

7. About the Author
EDWARD FIELD
- Was born on June 7, 1924 in Brooklyn New
York
- An American writer and poet
- Received a Lamont Poetry Prize

8. The Telephone
The poem is a commentary on the
invention of telephone.
It is taken from “Counting Myself Lucky”,
a compilation of Field’s poem.
The theme is self-identity or happiness
The narrator explains how the telephone
made him feel connected to others, how it
give him pleasure to share gossips.

9. The predominant feeling of the speaker in
the poem is serious in his declaration that
telephone is the source of his happiness.
According to the speaker, friends are
disconnected because of distance.
The speaker justifies his joy of having a
telephone by stating his reasons such as it
makes him feel connected to the world, and it
gives him pleasure.

10. The speaker compare man’s situation
before the advent of the telephone to
a bear.
People nowadays value telephone or
cellphones.
The literary device used is simile.
(man’s situation to a bear)
The speaker is hunger for love and
gossip.