Starting off with Lord Byron, the message behind his work seems to come pretty much directly from his use of of words that have positive connotations when referring to the beauty of a woman. Some examples of this are the phrases "How pure" (line 12) and "A heart whose love is innocent!"(line 18). Now obviously, these are some great word choices to use if you're trying to win the heart of your admirer or crush. But does it necessarily tell the whole story or formula that makes up the so called "Love Game"? The third line, which says "And all that's best of dark and bright" seems to be the only murky point in the entire poem in terms of intentions, which is a good transition into Margaret Atwood's "Siren Song".
"Irresistible" (line 3) is the first word that really caught my eye here (how ironic) partly because it starts deviates away from pure passionate love but rather into possibly manipulative and addictive love. This addictiveness seems to be confirmed in lines 4-5, where Atwood writes about "the song that forces men/ to leap overboard in squadrons". Atwood seems to have a much less pure version of love, and what we might assume comes from the powerful woman's perspective as she has men drooling over her. I start to get an even clearer picture in lines 13-15. "I don't enjoy it here/ Squatting on this island/ Looking picturesque and mythical". Now, I've come to the conclusion that the narrator is something along the lines of Swimsuit model Kate Upton. She probably HATES sitting on majestic Caribbean islands and looking beautiful all the time. Perhaps Atwood's narrator, Kate Upton, and beautifully attractive women all have cracked the code that attracts men who exhibit clever but pure use of romantic language like that in Byron's poem, and for these women, apparently "it works every time"(line 27).
Do you think the sirens pity the men for their vulnerability? Or do the sirens resent or even loath the men because the sirens are trapped in the role of enchantress?
ReplyDelete