Homer’s The Odyssey is important to the history of literature, but there is one part of Odysseus's adventures that have interested readers since the book was released, the part where Odysseus encountered the sirens. These interested readers often make different versions of this excerpt, from books to short stories to movies. In this essay, though, the focus is going to be purely on a single poem by Margaret Atwood, “Siren Song”, and how this poem and the original text comparably convey the sirens. The tones expressed to the reader from Odysseus’s poem is desperation. Odysseus’s heart “throbbed to listen longer” (20) to the siren’s “ravishing voices” (19). Odysseus was desperate to be released for the ropes that bound him to the boat so that he could go to the sirens. The tone used in “Siren Song” is misery. The siren notes how she doesn’t …show more content…
The authors use imagery to put you into the positions that the characters speaking are in. Instead of just saying “The sun softened the beeswax” the authors decides to write “the wax soon grew soft, worked by my strength and Helios’ burning rays, the sun at high noon” (5, 6). The siren uses imagery (and sarcasm) to describe how she looks, asking the reader to get her “out of this bird suit” (12) and complaining about how she doesn’t enjoy “squatting on this island looking picturesque and mythical” (14, 15). With this use of imagery, the reader is about to picture the appearance of the sirens in their minds. In conclusion, the sirens are conveyed differently in The Odyssey, by Homer, and “Siren Song”, by Margaret Atwood. The differences between the tones and point of views of each poem help the reader understand the two poems and give them insight into the misconceptions of sirens. The imagery also helps the reader imagine how each of the characters feel and give them the opportunity to slide right into the characters shoes. This is how The Odyssey and “Siren Song”