Siren Song Margaret Atwood Analysis

Sexual themes in poetry are not a novel concept. Being one of the main motivators for human beings, sex has been an inspiration to many poets and serves as one of the most widely used muses across all mediums of art. Sexual inspiration is used in poems, novels, paintings, movies, sculptures, music, and really any form of expression. These elements in poems, however, can be more subtle through the author’s use of innuendo and metaphor. Seduction doesn’t necessarily mean sex, though, and is defined as either persuading someone to have sexual intercourse or can be defined as a simple temptation. With this definition, poems can seduce readers by simply urging the reader to continue on their literary journey and consume the entirety of the author’s

The siren speaker is talking to the reader and enticing them to come closer and listen to her secret about how she kills so many men as easily as she does. By the end of the poem, the reader realizes that they too have been fooled by the siren and have been led to their own death. The siren entices the reader by offering to “tell you the secret” (line 10) multiple times and convincing the reader that she wants to tell “only you” (line 20). This offer of secret information and exclusivity draws the reader closer and closer to the end of the song which also signifies the reader’s death. Much like the famous cat, curiosity ends up killing the reader. This type of seduction plays more on human’s inherent curiosity instead of human’s animalistic lust which is a different perspective on seduction than is usually found in poems. Normally, seduction enlists romance and lust to temp the

This sonnet draws the reader in with the song-like beat, thanks to the iambic pentameter normally present in Shakespeare’s sonnets, and with the increasing conflict with each quatrain. The speaker is caught in a love triangle with his friend and the love of his life and is experiencing internal conflict as to how to resolve his pain. Love triangles are normally appealing to the masses because most people have either been a part of some sort of love triangle or been affected by the triangle in some sense. The relatable pain in this poem is also present when the speaker says: “Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan” (line 1). Shakespeare is personifying his mistress’s heart as one that makes his own heart cry out in agony, which is most likely in reference to the gut-wrenching emotion of romantic hurt. The speaker goes on to describe his heart as being imprisoned in his heart or as he put it her “steel bosom's ward” (line 9). In an attempt to be a good friend or maybe an attempt to thwart the friend and the mistress from continuing their affair, the speaker sacrifices himself metaphorically and implores the mistress to allow his friend’s heart to be released from her hold. This would seem selfless if the speaker wasn’t already in love, or in lust, with the mistress. Watching the one you love possibly have feelings, whether they