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M & A

Throughout her poem //The Siren Song//, Margaret Atwood uses imagery to create and enhance the tone. Atwood's imagery dominates the poem and produces a strong tone. The images Atwood paints in the reader's mind help to create a condescending, dark, secretive, and jaded tone.

The tone of Atwood’s //Siren Song// is developed as dark, secretive, and jaded through her use of imagery. The poem opens up with the image of men “leaping overboard in squadrons” even though they can see “beached skulls.” This creates a dark tone at the start of the poem. In the next stanza, the narrator asks the sailor to “get [her] out of this bird suit” because she does not enjoy “squatting on this island looking picturesque and mythical.” This causes the tone to switch from its dark tone to a more jaded tone because this image makes it obvious that the narrator has no desire to continue singing the song. The narrator tells the sailor that she “will tell the secret to [him], to [him], only [him].” This, coupled with the lack of detail throughout the piece, creates a secretive tone.

In the poem, Atwood also conveys a condescending tone through her use of imagery. In lines 4-6, the reader envisions an abundance of sailors “leaping overboard” in a stupor to reach the sirens, seemingly unaware that they too will wind up dead. In this instance, it is almost as if the speaker is laughing at how easy it is to fool the men. This condescending tone is shown throughout the poem as the speaker attempts to dismiss the notion of women needing men. In lines 22-24, the speaker is again illustrating the disdain for the gullible nature of men. The reader sees an image of a young, beautiful woman, referred to in the poem as "the siren," calling out to a man, telling him how special he is, knowing that she is lying and he will be deluded by her words. Atwood is responding to what she perceives to be a chauvinistic situation by ultimately showing a superior tone throughout the poem.

Atwood's use of imagery greatly enhances and exemplifies the tone of the poem. The images she constructs with her strong language produce the dark, condescending tone in The Siren Song. Without her images of sailors leaping overboard, beached skulls, as well as the many others, the poem would not be as powerful as it is.