Margaret Atwood, a canadian-born poet, award winning writer, and a proclaimed feminist, wrote several poems dedicated to women and their struggles. Atwood explained to Judy Klemesrud in the New York Times, “My women suffer because most of the women I talk to seem to have suffered.” Since then, Atwood has become known and recognized as a feminist. Atwood’s attentiveness to women and their experiences are shown in many of her works; Including “This Photograph of Me” and the “Siren Song”, a poem that remodels Homer’s epic The Odyssey. Atwood’s unique perspective classifies her as a great feminist poets.
Furthermore, Atwood, who was surrounded by the intellect of the female faculty members at Victoria College, often portrays female characters dominated by the patriarchal society in her poems. She also elucidates on women 's social oppression as a result of male sovereignty. Atwood studies “power, and how it operates and how it deforms or shapes the people who are living within that kind of regime” (Oppenheim). Perhaps, Atwood’s greatest feminist poems, related to the empowerment of women and their role in society, are “This Photograph of Me” and “Siren Song”. Atwood uses symbolism to express the thoughts of the speaker and the theme of female oppression. The first stanza shows the effect of time on an object; “the blurred lines and grey flecks” represent the demeaning characterization of women. The viewer of the photograph has to look past these