Scribd
Upload
42 views7 pages

Poetry about Sirens

The document outlines a seminar focused on a close reading of Margaret Atwood's 'Siren Song' and Charlotte Wetton's 'The Sirens,' analyzing themes, diction, tone, and literary devices. It includes specific tasks such as defining key terms, explaining the poems' meanings, and comparing the portrayal of sirens and sailors in both works. The seminar aims to explore the myth of sirens in modern poetry through detailed textual analysis.

Uploaded by

Виктория Ищенко
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
42 views7 pages

Poetry about Sirens

The document outlines a seminar focused on a close reading of Margaret Atwood's 'Siren Song' and Charlotte Wetton's 'The Sirens,' analyzing themes, diction, tone, and literary devices. It includes specific tasks such as defining key terms, explaining the poems' meanings, and comparing the portrayal of sirens and sailors in both works. The seminar aims to explore the myth of sirens in modern poetry through detailed textual analysis.

Uploaded by

Виктория Ищенко
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 7

[2025]

Comparative Literature:
Myth of Sirens in Modern
Poetry
(Seminar 3,4)

CLOSE READING OF M. ATWOOD’S “SIREN


SONG” AND CH. WETTON’S “THE SIRENS”
I. Revise instructions for Close reading (retrieved from
https://guides.lib.uoguelph.ca/c.php?g=130967&p=4938496)
II. Do a close reading of the following poetry and fulfill the tasks:

Siren Song
MARGARET ATWOOD (1939)
This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:

the song that forces men


to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls

the song nobody knows


because anyone who has heard it
is dead, and the others can't remember.

Shall I tell you the secret


and if I do, will you get me
out of this bird suit?

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.

I will tell the secret to you,


to you, only to you.
Come closer. This song

is a cry for help: Help me!


Only you, only you can,
you are unique

at last. Alas
it is a boring song
but it works every time.

2.1find the meaning of the words in the dictionary and explain their usage in
the poem:
 irresistible
 to leap overboard
 a squadron
 the beached skulls
 squatting
 picturesque
 feathery

2.2. explain the meaning of the poem.

2.3 analyze the following:


Aspect of analysis Commentary Examples from the text
Diction:
Narrative Voice:
Tone:
Structure:
Rhetorical and
Literary Devices:

The Sirens
by Charlotte Wetton
Spring 2001

Was it just sea cows peacefully suckling?

When scurvy set in they carried on,

until even the captain lay below,

his gums red and swollen

in his dry face.

And then the wind died.

Long, long days of the sail sagging.

Thin and weak they sprawled on the deck

dreaming of oranges, limes and red peppers,

only small waves, breaking softly against the bows,


white as a hand

that grips

that grips the hull…

A thump on the wooden prow, once, twice –

and then the singing begins.

They had no Circe, no bees wax.

If they were deaf and blind they might stand a chance.

The tiller creaked, the ship lurched,

coming, coming

towards the rocks.

Their voices rise

her fin slaps the stone, faster and faster,

one spreads her arms

chests heave the crescendo –

There is the first awful boom,

and the creaking, splintering of tarred planks,

and the pouring rush of water.

A sailor screamed, high as a woman

some cursed, and scrabbled for muskets, for clubs,

one shouted a prayer to the Virgin.

Later, in engravings

they showed the men brave and strong and handsome.

And the women’s silky hair soft billows against the dusky sky,
scallop shells for modesty.

That was later.

Now the men reeled against the bucking floor,

dizzy and hungry, their ears full of song,

full of song, full of song.

Great gashes in the curved planks

broken like a rib-cage.

Now smooth arms hauled themselves up

hair plastered back

streaming salt down their breasts,

the flick and thrust of those muscular tails, terrifying.

Already dying of salt-pork

the men were weak in those wet arms,

oxygenless kisses

before the freezing plunge of water.

They bubbled and turned blue,

gouts of water,

no blood – only cold fingers at their lips.

And still the chanting like sonar calls of mammals,

notes they’d never heard before

not meant for mortals.

Still they struggled,

sluggish under water,

a cracked splinter, two foot long, scratched deep

a scream of pain, of rage,


and her hands were round his throat

her tail between his legs.

Embracing as the fathoms pass

– unheavenly choir

seducing them to chilly boudoirs

in ladylike blue-green,

and darker places,

not so ladylike.

This is no cold-blooded androgyny, no sexless fish.

The sea-bed approaches,

A nuptial, welcoming,

lungs bursting,

waves sweep nausea

and peels of song,

face on face, eyes clouding with beauty, and death.

Down here there is no sun to flash against silver scales

nor sails for shrouds,

only the wet enfold of the sea, of the mermaids, no longer maids.

2.4.find the meaning of the words in the dictionary and explain their usage in
the poem:
 scurvy
 sagging
 a bow
 a prow
 a fin
 a crescendo
 an engraving
 a billow
 to reel
 sluggish
 embracing
 a nuptial
 shrouds
 a mermaid
2.5.explain the meaning of the poem.
2.6.analyze the following:
Aspect of analysis Commentary Examples from the text
Diction:
Narrative Voice:
Tone:
Structure:
Rhetorical and
Literary Devices:

2.7. Based on the myth and the poems fill in the charts:

Character/ Detail Characterist as portrayed in as portrayed in


ics in the M.Atwood’s poem Ch.Wetton’s poem
myth feature quotation feature quotation
1 Sirens:
- portrayal
- lineage
- behaviour
- destiny/death
2 Sailors:
- behaviour
- relations/encounter
with the sirens
- destiny
3 Sirens’ dwelling place:
4 Siren song and its
influence on the sailors

Summarize the features of the two poems:


Aspect of analysis In M.Atwood’s poem In Ch.Wetton’s
poem
Diction:
Details of
observation:
Structure:
Narrative Voice:
Tone:
Rhetorical and
Literary Devices:

You might also like