The poem “The Secretary Chant,” by Marge Piercy, contains many characteristics that are intended to draw the reader in. As in any poem, words mean more than they appear A. Each line is written with a purpose. Every word is there for a reason; otherwise the poem would not be the same. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay "My hips are a desk." The first line sets the tone for the entire poem. Piercy begins by personifying a desk as his hips. This metaphor is crucial to the rest of the poem. When you think of a desk, what do you think of? It is often a workstation. It's where all the supplies are laid out and all the work is done. She says her hips are a desk because they are the foundation of her body. The poem is full of metaphors in which body parts are compared to office supplies. The poem aims to show the transformation from a woman to a walking working machine. She feels like she does everything, she is the foundation of all workers in the perceived office environment. “Chains of paper clips hang from my ears. The rubber bands form my hair. These two lines have multiple meanings. An obvious meaning of these phrases is that she is the place where everyone goes to get office supplies. But there is also a deeper meaning in these sentences. What do paper clips and rubber bands do? They are made to hold things together. Saying that it is made up of these two objects implies that a secretary is the glue that holds the entire office together. Without her, the rest of the office would simply fall apart like uncut sheets of paper. There are four onomatopoeias in this poem: buzz, click, zing, and jingle. These words are very important for poetry. With these words, Piercy manages to increase the effect he creates with the personification of other office supplies. These words are grouped in pairs in the seventh and fourteenth lines of the poem. Just the placement of the words creates a certain sensation. It is as if the sounds interrupt the poem, giving it a more mechanical aspect. Piercy goes on to describe his head in two different ways. The first is a comparison with a poorly organized file. He says this because a secretary has many different things to keep track of. Piercy then writes: "My head is an electrical panel where the crossed lines crackle." A secretary is very likely to have more than one person to keep organized. When he says that the crossed lines crackle, he indicates that he can often confuse some information. After the second set of onomatopoeias, Piercy continues: "Swollen, heavy, rectangular, I'm about to give birth to a little Xerox machine." This is included in the poem to increase the depressing feeling of insignificance. What Piercy meant by this is how he believes that women can never amount to anything more than a secretary. She says she's delivering a Xerox machine, which means her offspring will end up doing exactly what she does. Also, he uses the term Xerox because the only thing a Xerox machine was used for was making copies. This is ironic because it is making an exact copy of itself, just like a copy machine would. The overall meaning of this poem can be found in the last line, “File me under W for I was not a woman.” It was written to show the reader the transformation that women are going through in the workplace. Piercy wrote this to express his feelings. He feels like his work has taken over his existence as a person. In 1973, when she wrote this poem, women were still fighting for.