Page 339, #289, "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"

This poem by Walt Whitman details the experience that the narrator gains by observing something first hand, rather than hearing it from an astronomer’s lecture.  Whitman implements anaphora in the poem’s first few lines.  Each of these lines begins with the word “When” and two of the lines contain inexplicit lists of items and actions.  These lines create a feeling of monotony that is associated by the narrator with the astronomer’s lecture.  This lack of interest is contrasted with the rest of the poem, and presents the idea that learning should be a first-hand experience, not something that should occur in lectures.

                The tone of this poem is very detached from its content.  This is likely meant to demonstrate how little is gained from being taught something by another person, rather than discovering it on your own.  The narrator is quite uncomfortable, stating “How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick.”  However, the tone shifts as the narrator goes outside and “Looked up in perfect silence at the stars.” This shift represents the importance that the poem places upon experience and first-hand knowledge, the major message of the work as a whole.

                This poem drew my attention because it describes the process of learning, and in this case learning about science.  Whitman does not attack the teachers of such knowledge in this poem, but the students who could easily (here, as easily as walking outside and looking at the stars) experience discovery on their own.  The idle learner is persecuted in this poem because it shows, very simply, that anyone who desires to learn need only to look at the primary source for the answers.

Page 271, #201, "Siren Song"

Margaret Atwood’s poem “Siren Song” incorporates allusion to convey the meaning of the work as a whole.  The poem alludes to the myth of the Sirens of ancient Greece.  The Sirens were the ultimate persuaders, said to live on an island sing songs, if heard, would cause the listener to jump off of his ship and swim toward the Sirens, who would kill the men when they arrived.  In the poem, as in the myth, the listener is aware of the horrors of the Sirens, and yet is unable to escape their apparent allure.  The association of this poem with the myth of the Sirens is a key to understanding the deeper significance of the work.  The allusion to a well-known Greek myth in this poem connects the current time period to a civilization that has been gone for 2,000 years, adding to the meaning as a whole, which is the universality of persuasion.

                This poem also uses synecdoche to convey ideas regarding such persuasion.  While in the immediate scope of the poem, the listener is being lured by a Siren, the weakness that is apparent here represents man’s weakness as a whole.  Rather than confining persuasion to this sole event, the narrator states that, “… it works every time” which implies a tendency for man to succumb to promises that he knows will not be lived up to.  The extension of this aspect of the poem therefore depicts not the listener, but all of mankind as weak.

                This poem intrigued me because it contains allusion to Greek mythology, a topic that has always been a subject of my fascination.  With a fairly good knowledge of Greek mythology, it was easy to understand and appreciate the connection between the myth of the Sirens and the meaning of the poem.  While this allusion is not original, Atwood portrays the speaker of the poem (one of the Sirens), as disinterested in such actions, even saying, “I don’t enjoy it here.”  This is ironic because according to the myth, the listener will face a brutal death from the Sirens, yet the Siren in this poem wishes to escape.