Louise Glück's Siren
From Waitress to Criminal
Louise Glück’s “Siren” consists of nine unrimed verse paragraphs of varying line numbers, from one to six. The theme is self-pity. The title, which will remind mythology enthusiasts of the sea nymphs who lured sailors to their death with their beautiful singing, does not seem to be an allusion to classic mythology but a mere reference to a temptress or seductress.
First Verse Paragraph: “I became a criminal when I fell in love”
The inauspicious opening, which consists of two lines, sounds rather comical: “I became a criminal when I fell in love. / Before that I was a waitress.” The speaker has set the reader up for a smack by claiming she “became a criminal” after falling in love. One might immediately be put in mind of Bonnie and Clyde by that claim.
But instead of showing why she became a criminal, she reveals that she had been “a waitress” prior to falling in love. By this juxtaposition, the speaker implies that “criminal” and “waitress” equal jobs.
Second Verse Paragraph: “I didn't want to go to Chicago with you”
In the first verse paragraph, the speaker seems to be addressing a general listener, but in the second verse paragraph, she is addressing the married lover who turned her into a criminal. She tells him she did not want to travel to Chicago with him, but she did want to marry him. And she wanted his “wife to suffer.”
These sentiments likely signify the reason that she “became a criminal.” Such thoughts are destructive for both the thinker and the one thought about.
Third Verse Paragraph: “I wanted her life to be like a play”
The speaker then admits further unseemly thoughts that she harbored against the wife: “I wanted her life to be like a play / In which all the parts are sad parts.” Her jealousy deranges her thought processes, and she finds herself in delusional rage against the innocent wife.
Fourth and Fifth Verse Paragraphs: “Does a good person”
Then the speaker reveals that she has thought deeply about her perverse thoughts about the wife, as she queries, “Does a good person / Think that way?” But then she adds, “I deserve . . . ,” leaving what she deserves for the next verse paragraph, indicating that she is still cogitating on what she deserves.
What she settles on is a way to lift herself out of her self-bashing; she claims she deserves “[c]redit for [her] courage.” But does she really?
Sixth Verse Paragraph: “I sat in the dark on your front porch”
The speaker then reports that she once “sat in the dark on [her lover’s] front porch.” She reveals the possible criminal act of stalking. The speaker then claims that she understood everything quite well: if the wife insisted on holding on to her husband, that meant that the wife did not really love the husband: “If she loved you / Wouldn't she want you to be happy?”
Seventh Verse Paragraph: “I think now”
The speaker then blames her deficiency in goodness on the fact that she feels too deeply. And she cites that detail she was a good waitress to back up her decision. As a good waitress, she “could carry eight drinks.”
Eighth and Ninth Verse Paragraphs: “I used to tell you my dreams”
After stating that she used to tell her lover about her dreams, she begins to tell him about a dream she had “last night.” In her dream, she sees a woman on a bus, leaving town; the woman is crying. She is waving good-bye with one hand while the other hand “strokes / An egg carton full of babies.”
In the final one-line verse paragraph, she simply avers that this dream did not help her through her despondency.
Another Glück article: Louise Glück’s “The Pond”: Nightmares and Blood
Louise Glück
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