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Siren Song Comparison

Decent Essays

In the songs “Song to the Siren” by Tim Buckley and “Sirens Song” by Miss May I, the allusion to the Siren song and the Sirens has the effect of influencing the reader into feeling sympathetic for men manipulated by deadly women. This illustration is evident in the female character in these songs, which presents the femme fatale archetype by being alluring yet quite dangerous. In the song “Song to the Siren,” Tim Buckley writes “Now my foolish boat is leaning/ broken lovelorn on your rocks” (Buckley). This allusion relates to the outcome many sailors faced when moving past the alluring Sirens. The Siren song influenced sailors to abandon their ships and swim to the Siren’s island, where they were promptly devoured. Sirens caused the shipwrecks of many vessels in this …show more content…

By spending just a night with a femme fatale type woman, men can suffer extreme harm or even death. The sheer power a Siren has over sailors passing her island can make a reader feel sympathetic for these relatively powerless sailors. This power that women can have over men is illustrated in a strong manner with this allusion, and leads to a reader feeling sorry for these men. Furthermore, Tim Buckley, showing the indecision that could strike a man when confronted by a threatening woman, writes “I am puzzled as the newborn child/ I am troubled at the tide:/ Should I stand amid the breakers?/ Should I lie with death my bride?” (Buckley). The mental argument that a man has of whether or not to go the the woman who is calling him or to stay where he is can be likened to the decision the sailors had to make upon hearing the Siren. The allusion to the victims of the Sirens debating whether or not to jump off their ship and swim to the Sirens is similar to the situations that men in Buckley’s era would have to deal with when faced with the questions of whether to become intimate with a threatening women or

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