Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2017

Body

An allusion is defined as “a passing or casual reference; an incidental mention of something,

either directly or by implication” (Dictionary.com, 2017) , Duffy and Atwood’s poetry

accomplishes direct and implicated allusions which give a modern audience an enhanced

understanding of their poetry. In Atwood’s poem Siren Song the allusion used is the Greek

myth of sirens. Typically portrayed as beautiful half-women half-birds who lure sailors by

singing to sharp rocks and ultimately their deaths. The sirens were supposedly so entrancing

that sailors would willingly sail to their deaths even after seeing the remains of the deceased

who came before them, the sirens also seen as immensely enjoying the death of the sailors.

(Couch, 1998). In Atwood’s poem, the sirens are depicted as finding it “boring” to sing the

men who pass to their deaths. In the first stanza, the song that the sirens sing is described as

“irresistible” which “forces men to leap overboard in squadrons”. In Greek myth the sirens

are distinctly female luring only men to their deaths, Atwood’s poem could be commenting

on the power that a women’s beauty has on men. The sailors both in the myth and Atwood’s

poem “leap overboard… even though they see the beached skulls”, stereotypically men are

illustrated as strong and more powerful than women however Atwood is trying to disprove

this to a contemporary audience with the allusions to the sirens of Greek mythology.

Atwood’s poem then changes slightly and the narrator entices the reader with an air of

sudden mystery by asking “shall I tell you the secret”. The narrator then continues to tell the

reader that they “don’t enjoy” forcing men “to leap overboard in squadrons”, the fourth

stanza is essentially the beginning of the sirens being depicted as “bor[ed]” with luring men

to their deaths. The narrator describes their “Siren Song” as “a cry for help” which is

“irresistible” to men, who throughout Greek myths have been rescuers of the ‘damsel in

distress’ ideology. The narrator is telling the audience that only “you” (speaking both to the

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