Siren Song

Siren Song by Margaret Atwood

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 they see the beached skulls

the song nobody knows
because anyone who has 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 it works every time.



I had the opportunity to recite "Siren Song," by memory, to my world literature class. What an experience it was, it was very difficult to memorize and be expressive at the same time. I feel that the vocabulary Atwood chooses to use throughout the poem has a hypnotic effect on the reader and listener.

In Greek Mythology, sirens were sea deities who lived on an island called Sirenum Scopuli; a siren was half bird and half female. It played music that was irresistible to seamen traveling by in their boats. The beautiful music that they heard and the sight of the beautiful women caused the men to jump overboard to swim closer, but what the seamen didn't realize was they were jumping to their deaths. The sirens hypnotized their victims, as the poem hypnotizes the reader. The reference to beached skulls, in the second stanza, belong to all the men who have fallen into the trap of the sirens song. I feel it is worth noting that although the siren in the poem seems unhappy, the power it gets from its song over takes its unhappiness.

Here is link to a bio about Atwood, along with some more of her poems. Enjoy!!!
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/margaret_atwood