In "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood, what is the dramatic situation of the poem?

Margaret Atwood's "Siren Song" is addressed directly to the reader, and with the first stanza, the speaker creates the dramatic situation:

This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:

The reader must, perforce, read on to discover what the "one song" is. The tension builds as the Siren describes the power of this song, declaring that men kill themselves in their efforts to hear it better and that nobody who has ever heard the song has lived to reveal its secret. The Siren then offers to tell the reader the song in return for freedom from her situation, which, we learn, is a kind of prison:


I don't enjoy it here
squatting on this island
looking picturesque and mythical

with these two feathery maniacs,
I don't enjoy singing
this trio, fatal and valuable.


The Siren hates her song. She wants to reveal it to the reader in the hope that she will break its mystical power and thereby free herself from it. The reader may begin the poem with mild curiosity, but this curiosity is piqued by the gruesome things people have done to get closer to the "one song" the Siren sings. The Siren complicates matters when she states her disdain for this song: it is not a thing of miraculous beauty or deep truth, which makes its power even more mysterious.


I will tell the secret to you,
to you, only to you.
Come closer.




The reader is by now fully invested in discovering the secret of this song. The Siren reveals it bluntly and regretfully, wondering whether the reader will still "get [her]/out of this bird suit" once they know how pathetic the secret truly is:


This song

is a cry for help: Help me!
Only you, only you can,
you are unique

at last. Alas
it is a boring song
but it works every time.