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  • Essay / An Analysis of The Secretary Chant by Marge Piercy

    The poem “The Secretary Chant” by Marge Piercy has many features intended to attract the reader. As with any poem, the words mean more than they seem. has. Each line is written for a specific purpose. Every word is there for a reason; otherwise, the poem would no longer be the same. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay “My hips are a desk”. The first line sets the tone for the entire poem. Piercy begins by personifying a desk as his hips. This metaphor is crucial to the rest of the poem. When you think of an office, what do you think of? It is often a workstation. This is the place where all supplies are arranged and all work is done. She says her hips are a desk because they are the foundation of her body. The poem is filled with metaphors where body parts are compared to office supplies. The poem wants to show a transformation of a woman into a walking work machine. She feels like she does everything, that she is the basis for all workers in the perceived office setting. “From my ears hang chains of paperclips. Elastics form my hair. These two lines have several meanings. An obvious meaning of these expressions is that it is the place where everyone goes to get their office supplies. But these sentences also have a deeper meaning. What are paper clips and rubber bands used for? They are made to hold things together. To say that it is made up of these two objects implies that a secretary is the glue that unites the entire office. Without her, the rest of the office would simply scatter like unstapled papers. There are four onomatopoeias in this poem: buzz, click, zing, and tinkle. These words are very important to the poem. With these words, Piercy is able to add to the effect she creates with the personification of other office supplies. These words are grouped in pairs in the seventh and fourteenth lines of the poem. The placements of the words alone create a certain feeling. It’s as if the sounds interrupt the poem, giving it a more mechanical feel. Piercy goes on to describe his head in two different ways. The first is a comparison with a poorly organized file. She says this because a secretary has many different things to keep track of. Piercy then writes: “My head is a standard where crossed lines crackle. » A secretary is more likely to have more than one person she needs to keep organized. When she says the cross lines crackle, she indicates that she can often confuse some information. After the second series of onomatopoeia, Piercy continues: “Puffy, heavy, rectangular, I am about to receive a small Xerox machine. This is included in the poem to add to the depressing feeling of insignificance. What Piercy meant by that is that she believes that women can never be anything other than a secretary. She says she's delivering a Xerox machine, which means her offspring will end up doing exactly what she does. Also, it uses the term Xerox because the only function used for a Xerox machine was to make copies. This is ironic because she makes an exact copy of herself, just like a Xerox machine would. The overall meaning of this poem is found in the last line, "Classify me under W because I was never a woman." It was written to show the reader a transformation that women are experiencing in the workplace. Piercy wrote this to express his feelings. She feels like her job has taken precedence over her existence as a person. In 1973, when she.