Secretary Chant

In many well known poems the theme is indirectly stated. Marge Piercy’s, “The Secretary Chant,” contains a theme, which can be interpreted from the writing that indirectly states it. TPCASTT, discarding the last T which is theme are used in order to analyze the poem. When analyzing each letter it will help find the theme, but some help more than others when analyzing.

For Marge Piercy’s, “The Secretary Chant,” connotations some of which are metaphors and onomatopoeia and shifts give me the theme of the poem. Connotations I found were metaphors and onomatopoeia which strongly implied the theme. Metaphor was the connotation mainly used in the poem, in the 2nd stanza it, said, “Press my fingers and in my eyes appear credit and debit.” Metaphors similar to this are used throughout the poem where she is comparing herself to objects. Reading the poem I perceived that she is an object placed in her job. Onomatopoeia adds to the meaning behind metaphors and are used at the end of the 1st and 2nd stanzas, “Buzz.Click”/ “Zing.Tinkle.” These noises are giving the sounds that a secretary appliance would make. I thought not only was she an object, but a machine which is being used and controlled. From the use of connotations I found part of the theme but it is the shifts that let me finish it.

In “The Secretary Chant,” there are only shifts at the beginning and end, “My hips, are a desk from my ears hang chains of paper clips.” In the beginning the comparing of objects told me she is being consumed by her job. Yet she felt she wasn’t treated as a human being. “File me under W because I Wonce [sic] was a woman.” File me under W is how women felt they were put in a job based on gender. When incorrectly spelling once with a w she tells us women want to fight back. Controlling what a person does based on gender is what these women