To Helen by Edgar Allan Poe | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘To Helen’ is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe that was first published in 1831. Poe continued to edit and revise the poem and it was published in its final structure in Poe’s 1845 poetry collection titled The Raven and Other Poems.

In the poem, Poe refers to the beauty of Helen of Troy while talking about Jane Stanard, the mother of one of his childhood friends. Poe mentioned that he was infatuated by Jane and she was one of the first dependable older, female presences in his young life.

The central theme of the poem is the beauty of a woman (Jane Stanard in Poe’s case). Poe compares the woman with Helen of Troy and compares the beauty of Helen with various other mythological figures.

In 1952, Hilda Doolittle, better known as H.D. published her poem To Helen in which she offered a response to Poe’s poem ‘To Helen’ while raising the issue of objectification of women and misogyny.

Structure of To Helen:

To Helen is a short poem consisting of 15 lines set in three stanzas of five lines each. Each stanza follows a different rhyming scheme. The first stanza is set in rhyme scheme ABABB, the second stanza follows CDCDC, and the third follows EFFEF. In addition, Poe used assonance and consonance to offer slant rhymes within the stanzas. Poe wrote the poem in iambic pentameter. Each line is made up of five sets of two beats. The first of these is unstressed and the second is stressed. Poe used metaphor, enjambment, alliteration, personification, and simile, and there are many allusions in the poem. Poe continues to use simile throughout the poem and thus, it can be said as an example of epic or Homeric simile.

Summary of To Helen :

Stanza 1

“Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicéan barks of yore,
That gently, o’er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.”

The poet begins with a metaphor as he addresses Helen and mentions how he feels about her beauty. The poet basically refers to some lady he knows well while addressing her as Helen, suggesting that the lady he wishes to talk to is as beautiful as Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the classical Greek world. It is believed that Poe dedicated this poem to Jane Stanard, the mother of one of his close friends.

He compares the lady’s beauty with the ships of Nicea in the old times. Nicea was an important ancient port of the Greek empire. The poet says that her beauty offers the same relief that a tired wanderer would feel when a strong and gentle ship takes him away from the struggles to the security of his native place.

Poe begins with a simile “Helen, thy beauty is to me/like those Nicéan barks of yore.” Poe uses a

syncope in the third line (O’er or over), and alliteration in the fourth (way-worn wanderer). Poe used an allusion to Odysseus as the tired wanderer who returned to his home from Nicea. Another allusion is Catullus, a Greek poet who once traveled from Nicea where flowers and fruit trees were in bloom. The seas would seem "perfumed" as a result of the odors coming from those trees.

Stanza 2

“On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,

And the grandeur that was Rome.”

The poet continues to praise the beauty of that lady and his tone becomes more romantic. He romanticizes the glory and grandeur of the Greek and Roman eras and compares them to the beauty of the lady who he refers to as Helen of Troy.

‘Wont’ is an obsolete word now which meant ‘used to’ or ‘accustomed to’ in the past. The poet says that the seas are desperate, rough, and dangerous, and the wanderer has little hope to reach the native shore safely. Her beauty guides the poet, who is the wanderer now and brings him home through the rough roaming seas. The poet means that he was lost before he met the lady whom he refers to as Helen. The poet compares the hair of the lady with bunchy hyacinth flowers of probably reddish-orange color. Poe again uses alliteration (hyacinth hair). Poe compares the lady with Naiad, a mythical figure that lives near the seas, a nymph representing beauty and magic.

Stanza 3

“Lo! In yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand!
Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy-Land!”

The poet begins with an exclamation as he sees the lady standing near a spacious circular bright window (window-niche). He exclaims that the lady is looking astonishing as he sees her standing near the window niche like an artful statue, as she is not moving. She appears to the poet like a work of art. He appreciates her physical attributes that appear proportionate, perfectly crafted, and just totally hot. Poe uses simile again (statue-like). The lady is standing still with an ‘agate lamp in her hand. An agate lamp is a kind of stone through which light is reflected. The poet suggests that the lady embodies light and warmth, providing him with a destination to aim for. The poet then compares the lady with Psyche. Psyche is a mortal mythical figure in Greek mythology. Psyche was the most beautiful mortal woman in the world. She was so beautiful that people began ignoring Venus, the goddess of beauty. Thus, Venus got jealous of her beauty and told her son Cupid to shoot an arrow at Psyche and make her fall in love with a bull. Cupid followed his mother’s order but when he saw to shoot at her, he found her so astonishingly beautiful that he got distracted and accidentally got poked by one of his own arrows and fell in love with her. The poet compares himself with Cupid. Later on, Psyche herself got rid of the mortal world and became a goddess. The poet says that the lady, Helen, Psyche, Jane Stanard has arrived from the Holy-land, the place of the goddesses.

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