35 pages 1 hour read

Margaret Atwood

Siren Song

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1974

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Reading Comprehension Answers

1. A. The speaker says that “everyone / would like to learn: the song / that is irresistible.”

2. C. When the sailors leap from their ships, they ignore “the beached skulls.”

3. B. The speaker of the poem is one of three Sirens, as indicated by the title “Siren Song” and the lines “I don’t enjoy it here / […] with these two feathery maniacs.”

4. D. The sailors are tempted by the Siren’s song because she tells them “only you” can help her, and they succumb to the flattery.

B. If the reader continues reading the poem beyond the warning of the “beached skulls,” then they, too, are tricked by the Siren’s song.