Margaret Atwood Group

Question:

hello97
hello97
Student
College - Freshman

In "Siren Song", who is the speaker of the poem? To whom is she speaking?

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Posted by hello97 on Sunday May 31, 2009 at 12:05 PM and tagged with audience, speaker.

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  1. sullymonster Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    The speaker of the poem is one of the mythical sirens, immortalized by Homer in The Odyssey.  The sirens are bird/women who sing a beautiful song that lures men to their death.  In Homer's version, the sirens lure sailors to jump overboard, which is why Odysseus has his men put beeswax in their ears and tie him to a post.

    It appears in the beginning that this siren is speaking directly to the reader.  We know this because of the use of the pronoun "you" -

    Shall I tell you the secret
    and if I do, will you get me
    out of this bird suit?...

    I will tell the secret to you,
    to you, only to you.

    She suggests to the reader that she will reveal the nature of the song to him.  She will reveal the true secret.  The "secret" is that the siren doesn't like her job, and that the song is actually a cry for help.

    What is revealed in the last stanza is that her audience has been male readers - the siren only lures men to their death in the tradition.  In this, the siren's "call for help" has been a lure, as she reveals:

    Alas
    it is a boring song
    but it works every time.

    In other words, in pretending to reveal the secret, she has lured another man to his death.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/short-story-criticism/atwood-margaret
    http://www.pantheon.org/articles/s/sirens.html

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    Posted by sullymonster on Sunday May 31, 2009 at 7:06 PM