The Poem The Secretary Chant By Marge Piercy

943 Words4 Pages
In the poem "The Secretary Chant" by Marge Piercy, a women is working as a secretary is viewed as underestimated and neglected by her executives. With this poem being composed in 1936, the thought of females in the work environment was genuinely new. Women were not given equal treatment as representatives and were initially phases of their battle for correspondence. The year this poem was composed unquestionably assumes a vital part in the poem's tone, structure, diction, and theme. Her strong and clear utilization of allegories permit the reader to imagine a lady who is carrying on with her life vicariously through her profession. Piercy effectively utilizes metaphors, personification, and pun to bring the character alive. With the literary…show more content…
The words are not obscure; however, give an obvious depiction of the woman similar to an authentic material item. “My hips are a desk” (line 1) does not truly mean that her hips are a desk, but metaphorically speaks to the aspect that the secretary spends a great deal of her time at the workplace sitting at the desk that it feels as though the desk has taken over the place where her hips once were. All through this poem, the indication of the speaker as being simply a piece of office machinery is explained with checked realism. Each bit of the speaker's body is embodied as it is portrayed in glaring detail in the opening six lines of the poem. Distinctive parts of her body are coordinated with unmistakable bits of office appliances. The lady does not see herself as an actual…show more content…
The poems sounds like a machine is talking in light of the fact that it further communicates a secretary's sentiments of being an item instead of an individual. The poem was composed in 1936 when a great deal of women had secretary or work area occupations, so numerous amounts of ladies could identify with it. Piercy utilized puns, a play on words, to depict a certain degree that this was such a discouraging time for ladies. While reading this poem one cannot resist the opportunity to picture this “machine” lady, and in spite of the fact that it is amusing, it is likewise is an image for how improper and skewed ladies' personalities were in the 1930's. ““File me under W / because I wonce / was / a woman” (lines 21-24) particularly in these lines of the poem the speaker has fully acknowledged the dehumanization by the job as a secretary in the mid-1930s. Not only are these lines a play on words, but they also contribute to another literary device known as alliteration, the repetition of a consonant sound. Hence the pun being used is by spelling the word once with a “w”, which also adds to the alliteration with the “w” sound being

    More about The Poem The Secretary Chant By Marge Piercy

      Open Document