The Secretary Chant

Piercy uses the Xerox machine in her poem as part of a pregnancy metaphor: “Swollen, heavy, rectangular / I am about to be delivered / of a baby / xerox machine” (Lines 20-23). The metaphorical symbolism of the Xerox machine within this context comes to represent a full circle connecting all other metaphors of the poem. The speaker is weighed down with responsibility as she would be with child. Further, the reference to a Xerox machine—whose purpose is to make copies—implies the speaker will birth a version of herself who may well also be doomed to the mundanity in which she currently exists.

Another reading of this image can be that the speaker herself is “about to be delivered” (Line 21). The specific inclusion of the word “of” in Line 22 offers such an alternative interpretation of the line. In this case, the speaker is the Xerox machine—just another standard piece of office equipment.

“The Secretary Chant,” published in 1973, predates French philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation (1981). Piercy’s Xerox machine metaphor aligns with Baudrillard’s observations about the reproduction of images and how they evolve over time to create a situation where signs bear no relation to reality, and are simply replications of other signs so far removed from their originating context as to be unrecognizable.