In the poem “Siren Song,” Margaret Atwood employs visual imagery, diction, and a variety of tones, to convey the idea that tempatation is a force that is difficult to overcome and may result in dire consequences.

            One tactic that Margaret Atwood uses to convey her central message is the employment of visual imagery. Atwood uses this in various places such as line line five in which “[the men] leap overboard in squadrons” which continues to line six stating, “even though they see beached skulls.” These couple of lines out of the numerous, make Atwood’s message emerge early in the poem about how tempatation can lead to dire consequences. Line five paints a picture of men quickly jumping out of their boats in huge groups to rush and see what and where the music from the Sirens is coming from. However, as this picture is painted, another vivid image would come to mind as the poem continues into line six where, not necessarily just skulls, but corpses and possibly human bones lay on the island. The use of imagery at this point in the poem allows readers to quickly imagine the type of people the Sirens attract and how the Sirens go about with their “visitors.”

            Margaret Atwood institutes a diversity of diction, or word choice, to communicate her idea of temptation being a stong and powerful force which could conclude in some major issues. In the first stanza, third line, Atwood, through the Siren’s voice, describes the song as “irresistable,” in which temptation falls into place, that men cannot resist following the sound of the song. In line eighteen, which resides in the sixth stanza, Margaret uses the word “fatal,” which is a synonym for deadly. “Deadly” would fall under the second part of Atwood’s theme…resulting in dire consequences. After reading the whole poem, you come across the word “works” (third to last word). This word implies that the Siren sings a song in which is hard to resist, because if many resisted, the song would not have “worked.”

            One of Atwood’s most valuable and effective strategies used to project her idea is the use of a variety of tones and tone shifts through the poem. This is significant to “Siren Song” because the various tones Margaret Atwood uses, shows the development of the Siren’s character and how the Siren causes temptation and leaves poor figure on fellow man that appears within Siren range. Within the first three stanzas, Atwood opens up by presenting a proud tone. Here, she is trying to communicate with the readers that the Siren is proud of her song and what she does for her everyday life. In the next five stanzas, it seems like Atwood is writing with depression because all fives of these stanzas can be summarized into the Siren wanting help of her evil ways. Readers may not be able to realize the true tone of deceit for these five stanzas until the last stanza, but hints within the first three stanzas’ tone uncover the truth. Why would a Siren who is proud of her song want to escape her malicious doings? The eight stanzas mentioned bring out the segments of Margaret’s theme…temptation, and the difficulty to defeat it. The last stanza also represents a shift in tone. The tone of the last stanza is boastful. The Siren mentions that the song is boring but it works every time. This conveys that the Siren is deceitful and proud of her song because she can lure men to try and help her escape herself when she really doesn’t want to. Each of these three tones builds on each other as the poem goes along.

            Conclusively, Margaret Atwood is trying to communicate her theme of: temptation is a strong force in which is hard to overcome and may result in serious consequences. Atwood does this through three poetic mechanics, each of which provide evidence to support her theme. These mechanics are: visual imagery, diction, and usage of various tones.