Siren Song
This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:
the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though the see breached skulls
the song nobody knows
because anyone who had heard it
is dead, and the others can't remember.
Shall I tell you the secret
and if I do, will you get me
out of this bird suit?
I don't enjoy it here
squatting on this island
looking picturesque and mythical
with these two feathery maniacs.
I don't enjoy singing this trio, fatal and valuable.
I will tell the secret to you,
to you, only to you.
Come closer. This song
is a cry for help: Help me!
Only you, only you can,
you are unique
at last. Alas
it is a boring song
but ti works every time.
Margaret Atwood
In "Siren Song," Margaret Atwood uses diction, tone, mood, and allusions to illustrate how women are cunning, and can easily lure a man so that she may do with him as she pleases. Her poem has many images of the the stereotype that women are inferior, unintelligent, and helpless. However, the amazing thing about this poem is that Atwood uses these stereotypes as amunition; she twists and transforms them to show what women are really capable of.
The poem alludes to Homer's "The Odyssey," by using a siren (a beautiful woman that is also part bird) as the speaker. She is telling her story to any man willing to listen and take on the challenge. She is singing so that she does not have to sing again, to find a man who is able to save her from "this bird suit." The dominant repetition of "Help me," and, "Only you," follows the stereotypical woman who depends on a man to do everything. The tone and mood of the poem throughout most of the poem is helpless, powerless, feeble, and even disabled.
However, the men are ignorant to the fact that this is the exact state of mind the siren wants them to have. She intentionally boosts his ego by saying "Only you, only you can, you are unique." The very last stanza is where everything shifts in favor of the women. "At last. Alas it is a boring song but it works every time." Cunningly, the siren allowed him to think that she was helpless so that she could pounce on him when he least expected it. The poem represents how men and maybe even society are small minded to the capacity of women. I believe Atwood is encouraging women to allow these stereotypes to be placed on them. Only so that when they are broken, it is even more of a suprise.
(This poem reminds me of Lysistrata and the scene between Myrrhine and Kinesias. I guess it was meant for me to always remember the theme "The Power of a Woman." LOL)
2 comments:
Zaaaam. I saw the allusion to the Odyssey by Homer, but I didn't even think about that scene from Lysistrata at all, but I think that's an interesting interpretation of this poem. If I'm not mistaken, the scene that you're referring to was when Myhrinne invited Kinesias over and she teased him with her goodies and then left. This is just like the Siren Song because the siren brought the men in with her goodies, and then just left him there.
I pretty much agree with it all. I didn't notice how the weakness of the women where being used to show their power. I like that she used those stereotypes and turned it around into something more positive for the women.
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