Siren Song

I read the poem Siren Song by Margaret Atwood and I enjoyed it. I think what I liked about this poem is the verbal irony used. The narrator is a Siren, who in Greek Mythology was a woman with an irresistible song that lured sailors to their deaths. Throughout the poem the narrator is suggesting that she will tell the secret of her song but she is actually just luring. She uses a tone that is appealing and she is asking for help, when actually she is just lying to get the mens attention. The verbal irony really shows through in the last line, “Alas it is a boring song but it works every time” which proves that all that was said was the song, a trick, that lures the men overboard. This poem is written in open form, meaning that it has no strict pattern or consistency. This form allows the author to write something profound without the restrictions of poetry and still have it considered poetry, which is a neat concept. I think Siren Song has a blank verse because there really is no rhyming of any kind. Although Siren Song does not have an iambic pentameter I think it best categorized in blank verse. In Siren Song there is some figurative language, a form of a hyperbole is used when the siren is describing what the effect of the song has on people. She says “the song that forces men to leap overboard in squadrons” to me that is a bit over exaggerated because squadrons are usually large groups and the fact that what would actually happen is the men of the ship would work together to run the ship into rocks near the supposed island, following the song of the Siren. This poem has been added to my list of favorites because it has humor and irony and is about Greek Mythology.