METIN INCELEME 2

The Secretary Chant - Marge Piercy

Written during the feminist movement of the 1970s, Marge Piercy’s The Secretary
Chant reflects the growing awareness of how women were being dehumanized in the
workplace. The speaker, a female secretary, describes herself using mechanical and office-
related metaphors, such as “My hips are a desk” and “My head is a switchboard.” Through
these lines, Piercy shows how the woman has internalized the objectification and repetition
of her job. The poem’s diction is cold and impersonal, with words like “filing cabinet” and
“paper clips” emphasizing how the speaker sees herself as less human. The syntax is
fragmented and repetitive, mirroring the monotony and mechanical rhythm of office life.
There is also no regular rhyme scheme, which creates a sense of disorder and emotional
flatness. These elements work together to show the speaker’s loss of identity and growing
despair. The diction builds the lifeless and practical world she lives in, while the syntax
reflects how her speech has become robotic and tired. The lack of rhyme underlines her
joyless and unpoetic experience—there is no musicality or beauty in her daily life. Through
this poem, Piercy connects structure and language to theme, allowing the reader to feel the
weight of invisibility and the effects of being reduced to a machine.

Onomatopoeia - Eve Merriam

Eve Merriam’s poem “Onomatopoeia” was written after World War II, a time when poets liked
to play more with sounds and forms. Merriam uses words like “Crash! Bang! Hiss! Roar!” to
imitate real-world noises, allowing the reader to hear the meaning rather than just read
it. This use of onomatopoeia makes the poem lively and loud. Merriam shows how simple,
everyday noises carry their emotional weight. Alongside onomatopoeia, alliteration adds
another layer of musicality to the poem. In the line “clang, clash, clatter,” the repeated “cl”
sound creates a sharp, crashing effect that mirrors the action being described. The sound
repetition builds speed and tension, helping the reader imagine not only the noise but the
physical movement behind it. This combination of alliteration and onomatopoeia makes the
poem dynamic and playful. These sound effects show that poetry is not just about meaning
but also about how words sound.
Gwendylon Brook - We Real Cool

Gwendolyn Brooks wrote “We Real Cool” during the 1960s, a time when jazz and spoken
word poetry were very popular in African American culture. In this poem, Brooks uses rhythm
and meter to create a musical feeling that sounds like jazz music. The short lines and breaks
give the poem a steady, bouncing beat, like a drum. For example, the way she writes “We /
Real cool. We / Left school.” makes the reader pause and feel the rhythm in the words.
Brooks also uses alliteration, which means repeating the same sounds at the beginning of
words. For instance, “Lurk late” and “Strike straight” both repeat the “L” and “S” sounds.
This adds to the musical quality and helps the poem feel smooth and connected. The rhythm,
meter, and alliteration all work together to show the youthful energy and confidence of the
speakers, but also hint at the risks they face. The sounds in the poem make it lively and
strong, helping the reader hear the story as well as understand it.

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal- William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth wrote “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal” during the Romantic period, a time
when poets focused on nature and emotions. In this short poem, Wordsworth
uses diction carefully by choosing simple but deep words like “slumber,” “spirit,” and “seal.”
These words give the poem a calm and quiet feeling, showing how the speaker feels peaceful
but also sad about loss.
The syntax, or sentence structure, is smooth and flowing. The lines move gently, like the
quiet sleep the poem talks about. For example, the line “No motion has she now, no force”
uses a calm and balanced structure that matches the stillness in the poem. Wordsworth also
uses a simile when he says, “Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course / With rocks, and stones,
and trees.” This compares the person’s body moving with nature’s daily path, showing how
death returns us to the earth naturally. The diction, syntax, and simile all work together to
create a peaceful mood that helps the reader feel the connection between life, death, and
nature.
Harlem - Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes wrote “Harlem” in 1951, during a time when African Americans were
fighting for civil rights and equality in the United States. The poem asks an important
question: “What happens to a dream deferred?” Hughes uses many figures of speech to
show what it feels like when hopes are delayed or crushed. These comparisons help readers
feel the pain and frustration of unfulfilled dreams. One strong example is the simile in “Does
it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?” Here, a forgotten dream is compared to a grape that loses
its life and sweetness over time. Another simile appears in “Or fester like a sore— / And then
run?” which makes the dream seem like a painful, infected wound. Hughes also uses
a metaphor in “Maybe it just sags / like a heavy load,” showing how carrying an unfulfilled
dream can weigh a person down. These figures of speech make the emotions very real. They
turn the idea of a dream into something we can feel, see, or even smell, which helps us
understand the deep emotional cost of injustice.

The Changeling - Judith Ortiz Cofer

Judith Ortiz Cofer’s poem “The Changeling” tells the story of a young girl who wants to
escape the expectations placed on her as a daughter in a traditional Puerto Rican family. The
theme of the poem is about identity and gender roles—how the speaker feels trapped in her
role as a girl and tries to explore freedom by pretending to be a boy. She dresses up in her
brother’s clothes and plays a war game to get her father’s attention: “I slid into my brother’s
cast-off shirt.” This moment shows how she wants to change who she is, even for a short
time. Her father smiles at her, and she feels seen in a way that is different from usual.
Everything in the poem works together to support this theme. The narrative voice is
personal and full of emotion, helping us feel the speaker’s confusion and longing.
The setting of the home and the contrast between the father’s reaction and the mother’s
disapproval show the struggle the girl faces. The line “My mother frowned when she saw her
war hero in his disguise” shows that the mother does not approve of her daughter acting like
a boy. But this moment shows the deeper message: the girl is trying to understand herself.
The poem brings together memory, voice, and family conflict to show the pain of trying to fit
into a role that feels too small. This is why the theme and the other elements in the poem are
closely connected—they work together to express the speaker’s search for identity.