Homer’s epic poem Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens and their deadly song which is shown in Margaret Atwood’s poem “Siren Song.” When comparing each text, it is found that the Sirens are portrayed as temptresses that trap you with their beautiful, “honeyed voices.”…
“He swayed, ruined, beating his only wing” clearly shows that she immediately regrets her action. “Afraid by the fallen gun, a lonely child” shows that she is not high and mighty anymore but is weak and pathetic.…
Ravashing voices...heart inside me throbbed to listen longer." Even though the sirens sound unpleasant, their sounds are still addicting. That makes the tone of the story sound as if in order to remain alive, one must get away from those desperate, ugly siren creatures. In the poem,…
In her poem, Atwood begins her poem with a warning to inform her audience about how powerful and scheming these creatures truly are with their "...song that forces men to leap overboard in squadrons even though they see the beached skull..." Here, she incorporates imagery to prove to her audience how irresistible and dangerous the sirens truly are. She also proves how manipulative the sirens are when she states, "...Help me! Only you, only you can, you are unique...it is a boring song but it works every time." This part of the poem shows the reader the sirens' strategy…
They discovered from the radio announcer that there will be an air raid in the next 15 minutes…
Initially I had a different perspective on this line. I just thought it was cool, because it makes me think of the sweat melodies that humming birds sing at the begin of a beautiful spring day. But after reading the play, I had a different perspective on the line. It’s ironic. Torvald does not yet know that his song bird (his wife) has been singing false notes for eight years.…
"She could only just recognise the tune for what it had once been. Not that coarse parody, stilted and mechanical, a tin brashness, a gaudiness of noise." Unpleasant and irritating sounds and noises suggest the lady's discomfort, as if the song was purposely distorted to upset her. By using harsh examples of onomatopoeia, Spence gives the reader connotations of discomfort. This sets he mood of isolation and lonliness, making the reader sorry for her.…
Vivian Dickerson has taken her leadership role to an extreme in the process of uniting and enjoying the wholeness of being a woman. Vivian happens to be the third president of the ACOG, (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology). She is entirely proud of her role and has constructed and proposed a Women’s Health Bill of Rights in hopes to bring new, yet, deserved rights to her fellow women. Dickerson outlines 10 fundamental health-related rights that she feels all women are entitled too. Without these rights, women are oppressed. Vivian plays many roles that help to cure and justify women from all over the world. She is a true mediator for so many she has never even met. Vivian cares deeply for the women of the world and the rights they should be bestowed.…
In the last line of the second to last paragraph in the story, the author writes, "Sylvia cannot speak; she cannot tell the heron's secret and give its life away." Sylvia's only friend, the pleasant young hunter who has come to her house in hopes of finding and shooting the great heron that inhabits the area, is going to leave, and has asked Sylvia to tell him where the heron can be found. Sylvia knows, but after much agonizing, finds that the loyalty she feels for the heron, as it represents the natural world, is greater than her longing for human contact. Sylvia cannot speak because to do so will be a betrayal of the heron and all she holds dear. Sylvia had never been one to talk very much. Shy and retiring by nature, she is "a little maid who had tried to grow for eight years in a crowded manufacturing town," but she did not blossom until she came to live at her grandmother's farm. Having been overlooked in a "houseful of children," Sylvia is "afraid of folks," and has memories of a "great red-faced boy who used to chase and frighten her." On her grandmother's farm, she has no companions, and becomes very close to the animals and the land in compensation. When the young hunter comes to her grandmother's house, Sylvia is at first intimidated, but then is drawn to him. There is within her a longing for human interaction which has never been fulfilled, and thus when she is faced with the choice between making her new friend happy or saving her beloved heron's life, the dilemma is agonizing. Looking deep within herself, Sylvia recognizes that, in the final analysis, her loyalty to the bird is greater than her love for the man, and so when she has one final chance to give the hunter what he wants, she remains silent, unable to speak the words that will mean death for her beloved heron and the world it…
Although The Sirens of Titan is a non-fiction book, it points out several of philosophies about life. The Sirens of Titan follows Malachi Constant, the richest and luckiest man in the 22nd century, whose bizarre and random journeys take him from Earth to Mars to Mercury, and finally to the Saturn moon of Titan, where he learns a painful and absurd truth about the history of humanity. In the book, Kurt Vonnegut employs characters’ lives to reflect his idea about a balance of humanism and existentialism that helps people create their own meaning of life. His book is a complex system of ideas and philosophies which relates to that in some political essays such as Lao-tzu’s…
In Glaspell’s Trifles, the canary and its subsequent death assists in an explanation of why Mrs. Wright acts the way she does and also provides a way to compare her before her marriage to after getting married. Before marriage, Mrs. Wright had been a sweet and pretty girl known throughout town for her pleasant disposition. Yet, as Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale point out, “[Mrs. Wright] used to sing. He killed that, too” (Glaspell 1012). This emphasizes…
The sirens sing, “the song nobody knows because anyone who has heard it is dead, and the others can’t remember,” which lure the reader in because they would want to hear the song that no one else knows. “Will you get me out of this bird suit,” is also secretive because the suit gives a sense of deceit or fakeness from the reality of what the siren really is. The tone suddenly shifts to pitiful as the siren says, “I don’t enjoy it here squatting on this island looking picturesque and mythical with these two feathery maniacs, I don’t enjoy singing this trio, fatal and valuable.” The siren is almost complaining to the reader about how she hates being a part of the trio and that she would much rather escape from them. The pitiful tone is also shown when the siren sings, “This song is a cry for help: Help me!” This tells the reader that the siren is helpless and pleads for someone to save…
Margaret Atwood’s poem “Siren Song” (rpt. In Greg Johnson and Thomas R. Arp, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 12th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2015] 797-798) draws in the reader by describing what a siren song and what it may be. The definition of a siren song according to Merriam-Webster is “ an alluring utterance or appeal; especially : one that is seductive or deceptive.” This definition plays an important role in the entire story that is being told in this poem. There are many different contrasts in tone in this poem.…
A singing bird - To a ‘singing bird' (line 1), vocal expression is as natural as breathing. By speaking of her ‘heart' in these terms, the speaker indicates that her song forms a natural part of herself and is an overflow of her identity. The image of the singing bird is one which is often used in Romantic poetry. William Wordsworth emphasised the importance of expressing natural feelings when he argued that it was his intention to create a poetry which was a ‘spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings'.…
"Think, now:" (line 1) commands attention through the use of instructive language, a sense of power is given to the speaker in this opening line. This is reinforced through the use of clipped diction when introducing the dead bird full of maggots. The short sharp sentence structure forces imagery in a sudden and severe way. The bird is "Not only dead, not only fallen," (2), fallen implies that sins have been committed, hence "a Discarded Lover" (title). Maggots are associated with death and decay, this bird is "full of maggots:" (3), a rhetorical question is asked; does the bird cause "more pity or more revulsion?" (4) There is no room to argue a response ask the speaker moves quickly into the second stanza, this provides the speaker with an opportunity to express his/her feelings in a rhetorical way.…