How statue-like I see thee stand, The agate lamp within thy hand! Ah, Psyche, from the regions which Are Holy-Land!
•
瞧！彼处辉煌窗龛里 你，恰似雕像，伫立， 玛瑙灯儿手中提！ 啊，普赛克，来自 仙土圣地！
To Helen
By Edgar Allan Poe • Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore, That gently, o'er a perfumed sea, The weary, way-worn wanderer bore To his own native shore. • 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.
Theme
• The theme of this short poem is the
beauty of a woman with whom Poe became acquainted when he was 14. Apparently she treated him kindly and may have urged him–or perhaps inspired him–to write poetry. Beauty, as Poe uses the word in the poem, appears to refer to the woman's soul as well as her body. On the one hand, he represents her as Helen of Troy– the quintessence of physical beauty– at the beginning of the poem. On the other hand, he represents her as Psyche–the quintessence of soulful beauty–at the end of the poem. In Greek, Psyche means soul.
Edgar Allan Poe’s To Helen
Background
• "To Helen" is the first of two poems
to carry that name written by Edgar Allan Poe. The 15-line poem was written in honor of Jane Stanard, the mother of a childhood friend. It was first published in 1831 collection Poems of Edgar A. Poe then reprinted in 1836 in the Southern Literary Messenger. Poe revised the poem in 1845, making several improvements, most notably changing "the beauty of fair Greece, and the grandeur of old Rome" to "the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome." These improved lines are the most well-know lines in this poem.
Figure of Speech
It's believed that few American p oets can surpass Poe's ability in the use of En glish as a medium of pure musical and rhythmi c beauty. • Simile • Metaphor :"desperate seas" • Alliteration:" weary, way-worn wanderer ", " hyacinth" and "hair", "glory" "Greece" and“ grandeur" • Assonance: "wont to roam" • Rhyme: "me“ and "sea", ababb, cdcdc, fggfg.
Imagery and Summary of the Poem
• Poe opens the poem with a simile–“Helen, thy beauty is to me /
Like those Nicéan barks of yore”–that compares the beauty of Helen (Mrs. Stanard) with small sailing boats (barks) that carried home travelers in ancient times. He extends this boat imagery into the second stanza, when he says Helen brought him home to the shores of the greatest civilizations of antiquity, classical Greece and Rome. It may well have been that Mrs. Stanard's beauty and other admirable qualities, as well as her taking notice of Poe‟s writing ability, helped inspire him to write poetry that mimicked in some ways the classical tradition of Greece and Rome. Certainly the poem‟s allusions to mythology and the classical age suggest that he had a grounding in, and a fondness for, ancient history and literature. In the final stanza of the poem, Poe imagines that Mrs. Stanard (Helen) is standing before him in a recess or alcove in front of a window. She is holding an agate lamp, as the beautiful Psyche did w he n s he dis c o v e r e d t h e i de n t it y o f E r o s ( Cu pi d) .
Hale Waihona Puke •In To Helen, the speaker sees pure idealized beauty, both physically and spiritually. He thinks that she is so beautiful that that it is a relief to just be with her and you are calmed by her extraordinary beauty. She has beautiful hair and a classic face, and her inner beauty is also tremendous. The speaker sees Helen as very poised and perfect and ideal. The words that characterize the beauty most clearly are “ gently ” , “perfumed”, “hyacinth hair”, “classic face”, “statue-like” and “brilliant”. The speaker says that Helen‟s beauty has „brought me home/ To the glory that was Greece/ And the grandeur that was Rome‟ because Poe had opened the poem with the simile “Helen, thy beauty is to me / Like those Nicean barks of yore ” and this compares the beauty of Helen, with small sailing boats (barks) that took travelers home in ancient times. He extends this boat imagery into the lines above, when he says Helen brought him home to the shores of these great civilizations, classical Greece and Rome. Helen‟s beauty inspires the speaker and calms him to a great extent. Just her presence is a blessing to him.