Saturday, April 27, 2013

Peotry Essay Prompt #1



The two poems “To Helen” by Edgar Allan Poe and “Helen” by H.D. demonstrate the opposite esteem for the subject Helen.  The Helen of Poe’s poem is described with high regard as a very beautiful and inviting woman, whereas, in stark contrast, the Helen of H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) poem would be beautiful and inviting only if she were dead.
Poe’s poem is written in three stanzas of five lines that have definite rhyming patterns where two of the three lines rhyme and then the other three rhymes.  The first stanza has the pattern a/b/a/b/b.  Poe uses a simile to compare his Helen’s beauty to that of Helen of Troy, who was considered one of the world’s most beautiful women. Her abduction by Paris caused the Trojan War.  The reference to the “Nicean barks” is the war ships sent to retrieve her and the “weary, wayworn wanderer” is likely Odysseus who voyages took over ten years during his return from the Trojan War. The classical references are used to capture the timelessness of Helen’s great beauty.  Poe describes Helen’s hair as “hyacinth” or reddish-golden with the allure of a graceful “Naiad” or nymph.  She is so inviting that she welcomes him home with “the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome”.  In the final stanza, Poe’s Helen is immortalized, transcending time like a statue with an agate lamp symbolizing the connection to the Psyche, or soul.  The poem is a tribute to a beautiful woman, held in high regard.
On the contrary, the Helen of H.D.’s poem is hated by all of Greece.  In this three stanza poem, a couple of the lines in each stanza rhyme and the stanza length increases by a line as the poem progresses. This disregard to form highlights the disregard the author has for the Helen of the poem. Like Poe, Doolittle describes Helen’s appearance, and even though she has qualities of beauty like white skin and olive eyes, she is too hated to be considered beautiful.  As the poem progresses, Helen is blamed for past tragedies and the description of her appearance changes to the appearance of a pale unmoving form, resembling death.  There is no regard or sympathy for the Helen who was so widely accepted as a symbol of beauty and love.  The Helen of this poem has been blamed for all the Greek casualties of the Trojan War. 
The portrayals of Helen in these two poems are examples of two extreme interpretations of the physical appearance and symbolism of a historic figure.

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