The Secretary Chant,” by the American writer Marge Piercy, is typical of this author’s work in many ways, particularly in its clearly feminist point of view. The poem is written in a simple, lucid, yet often whimsical style that emphasizes playful, bizarre, but in some ways depressing metaphors to suggest how secretaries often feel dehumanized. The humor of the poem contributes to the work’s success; a more strident, more obviously “propagandistic” tone probably would have been less effective. Instead, by displaying a sort of inventiveness that many readers will find witty, the speaker demonstrates the kind of intelligence that her job gives her little opportunity to express.
Significantly, the poem begins by emphasizing how the speaker’s body now seems comparable to an ever-lengthening series of lifeless objects. In fact, this focus on the body continues for much of the rest of the work; the speaker’s mind, heart, and soul are never explicitly mentioned, almost as if they no longer even exist. Her gifts of mind are implied, however, by the ever-lengthening list of metaphors she invents. If some of these strike some readers as strained or forced, perhaps that is part of the poem’s point: perhaps the speaker’s mind, deadened by monotonous work, struggles to be inventive without always quite succeeding. Either way—whether the metaphors are regarded as witty or as overdone—they imply something about the qualities of the speaker’s mind.
The Secretary Chant,” by the American writer Marge Piercy, is typical of this author’s work in many ways, particularly in its clearly feminist point of view. The poem is written in a simple, lucid, yet often whimsical style that emphasizes playful, bizarre, but in some ways depressing metaphors to suggest how secretaries often feel dehumanized. The humor of the poem contributes to the work’s success; a more strident, more obviously “propagandistic” tone probably would have been less effective. Instead, by displaying a sort of inventiveness that many readers will find witty, the speaker demonstrates the kind of intelligence that her job gives her little opportunity to express.
Significantly, the poem begins by emphasizing how the speaker’s body now seems comparable to an ever-lengthening series of lifeless objects. In fact, this focus on the body continues for much of the rest of the work; the speaker’s mind, heart, and soul are never explicitly mentioned, almost as if they no longer even exist. Her gifts of mind are implied, however, by the ever-lengthening list of metaphors she invents. If some of these strike some readers as strained or forced, perhaps that is part of the poem’s point: perhaps the speaker’s mind, deadened by monotonous work, struggles to be inventive without always quite succeeding. Either way—whether the metaphors are regarded as witty or as overdone—they imply something about the qualities of the speaker’s mind.
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