Thursday, February 26, 2009

sirens song

In “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood, Atwood uses the siren song from Greek mythology to help depict how women use their methods to reel men into loving them, no matter how foreboding the situation is.
The most important literary technique present in this poem is the allusion Atwood utilizes to compare women to sirens. Just like the sirens have their song to lure men into their trap, women have their beauty to attract men to them. I believe that this poem discusses the ritual that women engage in to attract a man, which signifies the reversal in traditional relationships where in the man attracts and wins the woman by showing off.
Another prominent component of this poem is the tone and mood that Atwood inspires with her words. She uses words such as “death, beached skulls, cry, and maniacs” it create a gloomy atmosphere that screams foreboding! When talking about this “island” and the “sirens.”
The final idea present in this poem is that the poem itself is the sirens song. This is seen in the way that the speaker is constantly talking to “you” as the object. Every sentence is referring to you, the listener. This is also shown in the way that in the fourth stanza the speaker says, “I will the secret to you, to you, only to you. Come closer.” This suggests that you are the sailor being referred to throughout the poem and that you are the one being drawn in just like the rest.
As you can see, throughout “sirens song”, Atwood uses allusions and visual imagery to both convey messages about men and women as well as to portray a gloomy and despairing tone and mood regarding it. Finally she wraps it all up in the idea that the listener is the victim and the speaker is one of the sirens, which makes for a very interesting twist.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

from the frontier of writing

In “The Frontier of Writing,” by Seamus Heaney, Heaney uses a variety of visual images as well as metaphors to convey the difficulties of writing. In this poem, Heaney discusses the barriers and obstacles that a writer needs to over come to start and write well. All of these metaphors and obstacles add overpoweringly to the tone and mood of the poem and help the reader get into the mindset of the narrator.
In “The Frontier of Writing,” Heaney uses visual imagery as the main indicator of what the message is in this poem. It also makes it possible for the reader to understand the narrator’s struggles. Words such as “tightness, catch, cover, and uncertain” all seem to help describe the tense situation before writing begins. And then in the second to last stanza he uses images such as “waterfall, black current or a tarmac road, and passed,” all of which seem to signify that he, the writer, is passing the troubles and obstacles of writing and is succeeding.
Heaney also uses a number of metaphors to hide his feelings about writing in a different story entirely. We see this in the first, second and third stanzas where the narrator is being interrogated by some troops and he is relating this to the first attempt to sit down and write, especially when you don’t want to. He also uses a similar metaphor, if not the same one in the fifth stanza to summarize the difficulty of continuing. However, we see an upbeat in the second to last stanza where Heaney seems to appear from behind his obstacles as a writer and proceed victoriously from behind a “waterfall” which represents him/writer conquering the difficulties and obstacles.
Overall, with out the tone and mood there would be no emotion in this poem, but do to the hints about how the writer feels, owed to the visual imagery and metaphors, we get an impression of it. The tone in mood in this piece start out wary and defeated. The narrator leaks and ambience of distain for writing/dealing with the guards, but by the end it transfers to a happy and upbeat mood, which resolves the poem effectively on a high note of accomplishment.
As you can see, throughout “The Frontier Of Writing,” Heaney struggles with the frustration of sitting down and writing. He emits this aura do to the acrid visual imagery of violence and oppression as well as the metaphors that house these images. However, eventually in the poem he conquers these obstacles and succeeds.