Secretary Chant

In the poem that I was reading this week called “The Secretary Chant” By Marge Piercy. I feel that after reading it that it’s talking about how the working women were valued in the 60s and 70s, also how women felt dehumanized when it came to their work. The reason for this is because in the poem the woman describes herself as all the different supplies in an office. So in a way she is making herself her work. (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012) The figure of speech that is used throughout the poem is called extended metaphor. You see this in the way that the author describes the secretary. For example “My hips are the desk” for this the author is comparing the women hips to being the desk because she is sitting all day. It then goes on to the women giving birth not to a baby but to a bay Xerox machine. It makes it seem as if the woman is a machine. It also depicts how the woman felt as if she was not a …show more content…
The reason for this is because this poem talks about something that was an everyday concern and also something that affected the economy. This poem shows how the working women felt being out in the working world. With the realism movement in literature it was about the things that affected the everyday life and also the everyday economy. This poem affects both aspects of the realism movement in literature. (Wikipedia) The symbols that are used in this poem show how women in the late 60s and early 70s lost themselves in their work. It also shows how they became dehumanized and started to compare themselves to everyday office supplies. In a way this is a dark and depressing symbol of poetry. Also with the way the poem is written it feels as if a robot is talking to you and not a person at all. You start to realize that the woman does not feel like a woman rather an object. With the symbols that are shown in this poem is shows how messed up women’s identities really were in the late 60s and early 70s. (Kirszner & Mandell,