Poem Analysis: Siren Song By Margaret Atwood

What sirens offer is the deadly song to the men, and what men perceive is the allure of the siren. The “fatal” side of the trio is the song produced by the three sirens on the island apparently causes the death of the men. But to the siren, the song is the thing she can only produce, and this only means of communication becomes the sole approach she calls for help for release, which is valuable to her. The paradox of deaths of mortals and the wish of salvation exists throughout the whole poem. Metaphorically, such paradox blurs the motivation of the siren, because the siren wants to get help from the sailors, and what baffles most is whether the siren gives sailors death out of true

Meaning: Acceptance of being emotional and crazy from traumatic experiences. The song is about a character who was just kidnapped by a “Big Bad Wolf” figure and the figure is trying to make the character do things for him. But in return she poisons and kills him and accepts she is crazy and emotional, and insane and is tired of holding everything back from her previous traumatic experiences. In this line of lyric “need my prescription fill,” this is the turning point of her acceptance by saying she needs her pills to not be as insane. The next line of lyric “sing you a lullaby where you die at the end,” is where she is really accepting her insanity and taking back the control in her life.

Additionally, the last three stanzas reveal information about the Siren song. The Siren says, “I will tell the secret to you, only to you...The song is a cry for help: Help me! Only you, only you can, you are unique.” The song is a classic cry for help from a damsel in distress - a cry for a hero, that only he (in ancient Greek context) can save the Siren. The song appeals to the hero personality in the individual song, repeating that “only you” can help the Sirens. The classic Greek hero is filled with hubris and excessive pride, and by flattering them can the Siren’s song lure them to their death.

The poem states “ No one knows the songs sang by the sirens those who have heard it are either dead or have forgotten.” (Atwood 1) The Siren song written by Margaret Atwood, informs, the reader the lyrics of the song that makes men jump overboard in squadrons. Written in 1974, The Siren Song was a reprint from Houghton Mifflin’s original poem. The poem gives the imagery of the sirens and the effects of the song. The song is irresistible to men because of the sirens crying for help to get out of their curse. Margaret Atwood

Hera only married Zeus after his trickery, Zeus took the form of a disheveled cuckoo, knowing that she would feel bad for the bird. Hera picked up the bird and swaddled it; then Zeus turned back into his normal form, taking advantage of her surprise raped her. Hera then married him to cover up her shame; their marriage was awful, and they often clashed. The next goddesses i 'm going to be talking about is Aphrodite, she is the goddesses of love, desire and beauty; even though she had natural beauty,

This version is much less serious and mysterious than Homer’s, as it is a satire on the whole myth of the Sirens. Atwood decides to make the Sirens more relatable, they hate their job luring sailors to their deathtrap as much as any other person hates their day job. The Siren speaking indicates clearly that “I don’t enjoy singing this trio”, but she goes on to try to manipulate even the reader to “come closer”, as if she’s like a grifter trying to con you into dieing. At the end of the day, the Siren doesn’t want to be deadly or mysterious, she just wants to get the job done, and “it works every

The subchapter starts with Perry and Otto, the Hamburg vacationer singing about, “some folks [that] say the worst of us they can, but when we’re dead and in our caskets, they always slip some lilies in our hand” (Capote 117). On the surface they are merely singing a song, but the words tell the reader about the pain they feel. Perry is singing about the deceptive people in his life, who talk bad about him, but then go to his funeral as if they care. The first person that comes to mind with this lyric is Perry’s sister, Barbara, whom he detests very much. Barbara claims to love her brother, but tells the detective how fearful of him she is.

The first allusion Henry used in the speech is, the song of the sirens. Henry states, “ We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts”. The song of the siren is an allusion to greek myth, the story tells of Odysseus and the time mystical women tempted him and his crew to death, by attracting them with their beautiful voices. Henry used this allusion to represent that it obvious for humans to hope for something, even when the hope is not reasonable.Yet a person could have such high blind hopes and ignores reality of the situation, therefore ending in the same destiny as those who let themselves be fooled by the sirens who either became beasts or died. A biblical allusion Henry used in his speech referred to the betrayal of Jesus , “Trust it not sir; it will prove a snare to your feet.

Quite the contrary. She stands up to it, sassily demanding to know "Who you watching?" (17). The mythological bird with which Phoenix shares a name also defies death by rising anew from its own ashes, and here, Phoenix the woman demonstrates that she, too, balks at death. Phoenix encounters bobwhite quail a few times in the story.

Trethewey immediately uses imagery to set the scene inviting your senses to help illustrate the image she has already relayed. This helped depict a more in-depth image of her poem “elegy”. After reading this poem several times, to build understanding, and break down literary elements; I came to the conclusion that Trethewey emphasizes the struggle to find balance. The balance between metaphor and symbolism, increasing throughout the entire poem showing battle between connotation and detonation. The struggle in which she used to connotation to portray the bigger picture, but also balanced out by denotation to show the subliminal messages of the relationship shared between the narrator’s father and herself.