Allusion And Irony In Margaret Atwood's Siren Song

273 Words1 Page

Have you ever been tricked? Like when something seems innocent, but is actually the opposite? In Siren Song, Margaret Atwood uses allusion and irony to show a theme of deception. In the first part of the poem, Margaret Atwood alludes to stories about sirens, mythological creatures known for luring sailors to their deaths. This is done by mentioning what they were about, and giving some details about them. Atwood says “The song that forces men/To leap overboard in squadrons/Even though they see the beached skulls.” (Atwood 4-6) It also mentions the danger of the sirens and their hypnotic songs, as the myths state. As the poem goes on, irony becomes more and more present, as the speaker, who is implied to be a siren by the wording of the poem,

Show More
Related

  • After Making Love We Hear Footsteps Analysis

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    The beginning of the poem starts with a humorous tone. Kinnell begins his poem with a simile “snore like a bullhorn”, an “Irishman”, or playing “loud music” to express the idea of something that is really loud and noisy, but still cannot wake the son up as opposed to the child’s ability to wake up to “heavy breathing” and a “come-cry” (line1-7). The tone that the...

    Read More

  • Irony In Happy Ending By Margaret Atwood

    984 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1983, author Margaret Atwood published the short story Happy Ending. It is written in third person swapping from limited to omniscient, though ultimately being told directly toward the reader finishing off with second person and sentences talking directly to the reader mixed in along the way. The story consists of letters going from A to F, with every letter telling of some scenario that takes place involving the only five characters: John, Mary, Madge, James and Fred. Story A holds the typical boy meets girl, falls in love, marry and live happily ever after until death. With this familiar story, it is granted the title Happy Ending and becomes the symbol that the rest of the story will build off of.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Allusion In A Sound Of Thunder

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    “A Sound of Thunder” is a story by Ray Bradbury about a man named Eckles that wants to hunt something other than regular animals, so him and a group of people travel back in time to hunt dinosaurs. The leader of the group told all of the people to stay on the floating path when they got there so they don’t kill any plants or insects that could change what happens in the future. Eckles got scared when he saw the dinosaur so he went off the path. When the group got back to the present time the group they found out that they had a different president, that was like a dictator. The leader of the group saw that Eckles stepped on a butterfly. After that the leader shot and killed Eckles. Some of the allusion in “A Sound of Thunder” were when Mr. Travis said, “Christ isn’t born yet” (1029), he also says, “Washington might not cross the Delaware, there might never be a United States at all” (1030), and the last allusion is referencing to the butterfly effect.

    Read More

  • The Twain Juxtaposition

    658 Words  | 2 Pages

    The juxtaposition of the Titanic and the environment in the first five stanzas symbolizes the opposition between man and nature, suggesting that nature overcomes man. The speaker characterizes the sea as being “deep from human vanity” (2) and deep from the “Pride of Life that planned” the Titanic. The diction of “human vanity” (2) suggests that the sea is incorruptible by men and then the speaker’s juxtaposition of vanity with “the

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis and Comparison of Ulysses and the Sirens and “Siren Song”

    1089 Words  | 3 Pages

    "AP Lit." : "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood along with Analysis. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.

    Read More

  • The Use Of Alliteration In The Diver By Robert Hayden

    1029 Words  | 3 Pages

    The repetition of sound causes different feelings of uncertainty and fear as the reader delves deeper into the poem. “Moss of bryozoans/blurred, obscured her/metal...” (Hayden 3). The r’s that are repeated in blurred and obscured create a sense of fogginess of the darkness of the water that the speaker is experiencing. The fogginess is a sense of repression, which is attempting its way out of the mind to the conscious. Hayden continues the use of alliteration with F and S sounds. Although they are different letters they produce the same sound that causes confusion, but an acceptance of death. “Yet in languid/frenzy strove, as/one freezing fights off/sleep desiring sleep;/strove against/ the canceling arms that/suddenly surrounded/me...” (Hayden 4). The use of sound at the last six lines of the poem causes the reader to feel the need for air and the fear of death. “Reflex of life-wish?/Respirators brittle/belling? Swam from/the ship somehow; /somehow began the/measured rise” (Hayden 4). The R sounds that begin is the swimming through the water. The B sound that continues right after in “brittle belling” is the gasp of air, and finally, the S sounds that finish the line by creating a soft feeling. As if the reader might not get out in time, even though the lines are saying that the speaker does escape the ship. The fear the alliteration evokes from the reader is the unconscious. The deep inner thoughts that no one wants to tap into. The speaker is accepting the idea of death in the ocean through his unconscious, but his conscious mind is trying to push back and begin the “measured rise” (Hayden 4) back to the

    Read More

  • An Explication of Sharon Olds’ Poem, Feared Drowned

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    The setting of the poem is a day at the ocean with the family that goes terribly awry. This could be considered an example of irony, in that one would normally view a day at the beach as a happy and carefree time. In “Feared Drowned,” Olds paints a very different scenario, using dark imagery to create the setting: “…suit black as seaweed / Rocks sticks out near shore like heads.” The poem illuminates moments of intense fear, anxiety and the element of a foreseen sense of doom. Written as a direct, free-style verse using the first-person narrative, the poem opens with the narrator suspecting that her husband may have drowned. When Olds writes in her opening line: “Suddenly nobody knows where you are,” this signals to the reader that we are with the narrator as she makes this fearful discovery.

    Read More

  • Daisy's Voice In The Great Gatsby

    656 Words  | 2 Pages

    Phrases such as “her voice glowing and singing” (14) and “her voice sang” (15) crop up all throughout the book in relation to Daisy’s voice. This repetition of “singing, sang” alludes to the mythological sirens who lured men to their deaths with their

    Read More

  • Comparing Sea Rose By H. D And Vague Poem By Elizabeth Bishop

    1322 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poems “Sea Rose” by H.D and “Vague Poem” by Elizabeth Bishop were both written by two women who took over the Victorian era. H.D’s works of writing were best known as experimental reflecting the themes of feminism and modernism from 1911-1961. While Bishop’s works possessed themes of longing to belong and grief. Both poems use imagery, which helps to make the poem more concrete for the reader. Using imagery helps to paint a picture with specific images, so we can understand it better and analyze it more. The poems “Sea Rose” and “Vague Poem” both use the metaphor of a rose to represent something that can harm you, even though it has beauty.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Allusion In Literature

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    To better a story or emphasize a point, authors sometimes use allusions that involve references to myths or classical texts. Allusion is an imperative part of understanding literature because they give us an unfathomable understanding of an author 's message. An author can carefully draw upon allusions to give a story, poem, or other works of literature from more meaning or to provide clues about the author 's message. The most familiar are Greek and Roman myths. The Greeks and Romans had an abundance of gods and goddesses in common, but the Roman name often differed from the Greek name. Gods and goddesses are often alluded to in other pieces of literature. Writers sometimes condense big ideas or intricate emotional issues by referring to a

    Read More

  • Irony And Imagery In Ballad Of Birmingham, By Dudley Randall

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    On September 15, 1963, in an act of white supremacist terrorism, a bomb exploded inside of the Birmingham Church in Birmingham, Alabama, taking the lives of four young girls, and injuring several others. The violent crime caused public outrage and drew national attention towards the Civil Rights Movement. In the poem, Ballad of Birmingham, author Dudley Randall speaks in the perspective of a mother to one of the victims of the attack. His use of dialogue, a standard ballad form, and distinct rhyming pattern, makes this poem accessible to a large audience. Dudley Randall uses tragic irony and imagery in his poem, Ballad of Birmingham, to evoke emotion and narrate the unforeseen tragedy of the bombing of the Birmingham Church

    Read More

  • Theme Of Irony In Annabel Lee

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    Irony is an effective way for a poem, playwright or author to lighten an otherwise dark or cryptic story while simultaneously putting emphasis the story’s dark elements; in its obvious absence, the darkness of the story becomes more apparent. This is effective in many poems, such “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe, which is about the death of a childhood lover. The persona, assumed to be male, highlights the youth of the his lover, Annabel Lee, referring to her as “this maiden” (Poe line 3) and “a child” (line 7) to underline the fact that she died too young and too soon. He blames this on the angels, who “coveted” (line 12) them and their love. Poe uses irony to contrast, and, therefore, puts emphasis on, the negative circumstances surrounding Annabel Lee’s death by retelling the events in an idyllic tone. Poe’s irony is successful due to his employment of diction and rhyme, which cause the poem to emulate the sing-song style of a nursery rhyme.

    Read More

  • Robert Frost: Annotated Bibliography

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this poem, Frost includes his fear of the ocean and exaggerates its destructive power. As Judith Saunders stated that “The first thirteen lines have depicted an ocean storm of unusual force, and through personification the poet attributes to this storm a malign purposefulness” (1). Frost provided human characteristics on the storm to help prove his point that the ocean has bad intentions and its only purpose is to hurt him. Frost does not describe the waves as a result of unfavorable weather; he explains them as having a malignant intention to destroy the world. This poem revolves around the forces of nature and could be included in the long list of nature themed poems by Robert Frost.

    Read More

  • Use of Irony, Diction, and Imagery in My Last Duchess

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his dramatic monologue, Robert Browning uses irony, diction, and imagery to achieve a haunting effect.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Diving Into The Wreck

    1270 Words  | 3 Pages

    The three main metaphors in the specifics in the passage above would be considered the wreck, the myth, and the drowned face. If you take into consideration that Rich was one of the greatest female writers in the 1970’s, you can begin to understand how the wreck is more than just a sunken ship, how the myth is more than just a book, and how the drowned face is more than just one person submerged in water. The wreck is a metaphor for everything that has been suppressed and devalued in women in history, and even at the time the poem was written. Rich uses the wreck to symbolize the oppression of women in a patriarchal society, and all the value that women could have added to society that has been lost and “left to rot” by the oppression of the female species, casting them out as ‘the others’ (line 82).

    Read More

More about Allusion And Irony In Margaret Atwood's Siren Song

Open Document