Marty Previtte
Ms. Swails
ENG 110
November 7, 2011
Player Chant
Imagery and sound can be two important elements in poetry. The poems “Secretary Chant” by Marge Piercy and “Player Piano” by John Updike are examples of ways to effectively use imagery and sound to convey a message. Although both poems use sound and imagery, they use these elements in different ways. Updike uses sound and imagery to portray human characteristics in a nonliving object, while Piercy uses the same elements to mechanize a woman into an office machine. Even though Updike’s poem is more enjoyable, Piercy is more effective in the use of imagery and sound.
In “Secretary Chant,” Piercy describes a woman being consumed by her job as a secretary. Piercy’s message is that women who perform the same secretarial jobs day in and day out can become mechanized. Piercy expresses his message by painting a picture of this woman with simple sentences, simple metaphors, and obvious grammatical mistakes. Each of these techniques is used to convey a sound and image so that the reader can become familiar with the transformation this woman is going through.
Most lines of “Secretary Chant” are formed by simple sentences. “Rubber bands form my hair” (line 4) is a good example of the poem’s typical sentence. By using simple sentences Piercy is making the statement that the main character (the woman) is losing her ability to stray from a simple sentence. This means that the woman being described in the poem is losing one of her humane abilities, to think and be creative. Her mind is being exhausted with tasks that require only one thought. There is no creativity or complexity to the way she now thinks. Similar in concept Piercy uses simple metaphors to describe each part of the woman, “My hips are a desk” (1). The use of the simple metaphor makes it easy for the reader to picture the woman with these