Margaret Atwood Group

Question:

lala56
lala56
Student
Community / Jr. College

The speaker lures the reader into the poem "Siren Song" with the promise of revealing a secret?  What do you think the secret is?

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Posted by lala56 on Sunday May 31, 2009 at 12:07 PM and tagged with secret, speaker, summary.

Answers:


  1. sullymonster Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    The speaker tells us what the secret is herself:

    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.

    That her song is not an alluring and seductive call, but actually a cry for help and escape, is the siren's secret.  She is crying for help because she hates her job.  She says in the large stanza that she doesn't enjoy the island (her home) or the "two feathery maniacs" (her peers).  She doesn't enjoy singing the song, either. 

    What is revealed immediately after she reveals the secret, however, is that pretending to reveal it is just a ploy on the part of the siren:

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

    She has lured the audience to his death.  Although the song is "boring", it does "work."  It appears to matter not that she hates her job.  She continues with it, perhaps because she has no other choice. 

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/authors/margaret-atwood

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    Posted by sullymonster on Sunday May 31, 2009 at 7:43 PM