Siren Song by Margaret Atwood

This is the one song everyone;
Would like to learn: the song;
That is irresistible:

A song that forces men;
To leap overboard in groups;
Even though they see the beached skulls.

A 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 trap?
I don’t enjoy it here;
Being trapped on this island
Looking beautiful like a goddess;
With these two crazy girls,
I don’t enjoy singing;
The three of us are deadly.

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.

Finally,
it is a boring song;
but it works every time. 

Initial Reaction:

The title clearly gives away the surface meaning of the poem: it's about a siren. From past reading I knew what a siren was, so the mythological allusions made a lot of sense. At first reading it seems that the siren is unhappy and discontent with her life and a femme fatal. She didn't like her life as a creature who lures sailors to their death with her beautiful song. And she surely didn't like the company she kept, of two other sirens. Oddly, at the end of the poem the tone changes. The siren goes from sad and forlorn about her life of killing witless men to sinister. As though she is leading the poem's victim to his death as well. 

SWIFTT:

The author of the "Siren Song," Margaret Atwood uses syntax, diction, imagery, figurative language, tone, and theme in her to add complexity to the poem. The first two stanzas seem detached, while in the fourth stanza, there is a shift to first person point of view. The diction demonstrates a siren drawing men in. She says, “You are unique” so that the man feels special. The song is “irresistible,” something the man cannot live without and is drawn to like a magnet. When the siren pleads, “Help me,” she establishes a sense of friendship which takes advantage of the man’s vulnerability. Atwood uses bird imagery to refer to the two other sirens. The “feathery maniacs” are the other two sirens while the main siren claims she is in a “bird suit” as a way to fit in with the other sirens.There is no figurative language, no usage of simile, metaphor, or personification. However, there is an allusion to sirens, which are mythical creatures, disguised as beautiful women whose voices draw in men. Those men are usually killed, but sometimes they get free and forget the song thereafter.

The tone of the poem is manipulative, pleading, and sinister. The sirens are trying to draw the man in. They tell him he is “unique,” and that nobody else knows this secret song.

The theme of “Siren Song” is deception and manipulation. Three sirens trick a man, a sailor, into listening to their song, drawing him in so that they can eventually kill him.

Conclusion:

My initial thoughts on the poem were correct. It's about a shady Siren whose evil intentions are shrouded by her lustful and enticing allure. There are, however, some things that I missed when reading the poem. The "secret" that the Siren tries to whisper, her cry for help, is actually the song. This is not a story of a sad Siren, this is her luring an unsuspecting victim to his death. Even though the listener sees the skulls and the three feathery women, he will still jump to his death and the craggy rocks of the island shore.