The Changes of Womanhood in Marge Piercy‘s “The Secretary Chant”

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Marge Piercy’s “The Secretary Chant” begins the poem by describing different parts of her body as office supplies. In line one she states that “My hips are a desk.” In line two and three she says “From my ears hang/ chains of paper clips.”(2) In line four she also continues with “Rubber bands form my hair.”(3) I feel like Piercy’s goal by starting off the poem in this way, was to help emphasize the speakers frustrations toward her job right away. I also feel that by comparing the speakers body parts to office supplies, gives the feeling that the speaker is using a form of sarcasm; which explains how much her job is unwillingly becoming apart of her life. In line five She states “My breasts are wells of mimeograph ink”. In the same time period that this poem was published, was also a time when women began to leave there roles as house wives. Breasts are one of the most feminine parts of the body, and by comparing her breasts to mimeograph ink, it seems like she’s saying that her woman hood is being changed as well.

This next part of the poem is a little hard for me to understand....

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