Explication of “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood Essay

Margaret Atwood’s “Siren Song” is a lyric that consists of nine three-lined stanzas that nor possess any recognizable rhyme scheme nor rhythm.

The speaker on this poem is actually a mythical animal, a Siren, who addresses us, the group, when she speaks with the victims which she tempted through the appealing song the lady sings. The general tone on this poem is sarcastic and quite sinister. The title itself immediately describes the idea and loudspeaker of the composition. The whole composition is one of classical meaning, referring to Homer’s Odyssey. The Sirens in the Odyssey are said to be exciting women who sit on an island and entice men with their tantalizing tune and beautiful voices, triggering them to bounce out of their ships and die.

It of the composition forewarns us, and using a name like “Siren”, the audience should understand its literal meaning: “Danger! Warning! Prevent if you can! “, but we all, as viewers, want to know even more about the Siren’s track, anyway. With naïve selfishness, we procedure the subject, considering we are strong enough to turn aside if things take a convert for the worse, all things considered, it is just a track. In the 1st three stanzas, the Fascinating women introduces and briskly elaborates on her tempting song. “This is the 1 song everyone would like to learn: the song that is irresistible”, she says.

She begins to appeal us in to her pitfall as we become curious why the track is so powerful. The Siren explains just how men bounce overboard after hearing her song, although they start to see the skulls that are scattered throughout the island. Most would think that this is an obvious indication for the outcome intended for the “squadrons [of men]” as well.

Her song is usually one that “nobody knows mainly because anyone who has observed it is dead”, which should likewise deter the group from planning to hear her song, although we are even now, of course , convinced. These first three stanzas serve as an “alluring warning”, in a sense. Through the next five stanzas, the girl continues to say that if we support her “out of [her] bird suit”, she “shall tell [us] the secret”. We are kept, curiously, to learn what the magic formula is. The image of a “bird suit” is known as a symbol to get the conformity the Siren endures, to be more exact, what she wants all of us to believe the girl endures.

She says she doesn’t enjoy “squatting on [an] island, looking picturesque and mythical, with two [other] maniacs”. The lady makes us believe that every she wants is to be freed from being trapped in her “bird suit”. She tries to convince us to “come closer”, and continues to help to make us feel very special, saying that we are “unique”, and this “only [we]” can help her. She insists that her song is very “a weep for help”, and that she’ll tell us her secret – all we need to do is usually lean in and continue to listen to her tantalizing tune. “Alas it is just a boring tune but it functions every time”, says the Fascinating women in the final stanza.

Her song, her cries for help – they all have been a scheme to lure in her next victims. Maybe, her promise to expose her top secret was stored, after all. Most likely her key was the reality her tune will always operate. She details her tune as “boring”, and seems almost busy with the result of her trap, as though her cunning ways are second nature.

However, however , we fell patients to her conniving personality and enthralling tune, even after being aware from the moment we read the title. “Siren Song” by Maggie Atwood is known as a beautiful poem that cleverly describes the method the Siren uses to catch her victims. The poem assumes on a scary and sexy nature, which will leaves all of us to be quite the opposite of “unique” – one other victim in the Sirens.

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