- What comparison does the opening stanza suggest? Why is it appropriate?
- What is the bell that rings in stanza four? Whose voice “draws the pencils”?
- Where are the stenographers in the seventh stanza? What are they doing? Note how the poem carries them through the day.
- In what sense are the stenographers like marathon runners racing around a stadium track?
- In your own words explain what the poet is suggesting about the life of a stenographer.