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Salina High School South

To Helen

(1845)

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.

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!

"To Helen" is often praised as a near-perfect statement of the Romantics' idealized love of pure beauty. Poe claimed that the mother of a school friend was the inspiration for Helen. However, the poem is not about any actual woman but about an ideal of beauty that can exist only in the imagination.

Allusions

An allusion is a reference to another literary work or a figure, place, or event from history, religion, or mythology. If I were to say that "you had the strength of Samson," I would be making an allusion, comparing your strength to that of Samson in the bible.

In this poem the figure of Helen is the means by which the poet's imagination creates a sense of pure beauty. The name itself may have either of two associatons: with the Greek goddess of light (as the poem's Helen is last seen in the third stanza), or with Helen of Troy, whose incomparable beauty is celebrated in both mythology and literature. In either case it is clear that the poet's imagination locates ideal beauty in the classical past, and several words in the poem refer to that past. No convincing explanation of "Nicean" (line 2) has been found, and it is probably an invention that is meant to contribute its musical quality to the poem and to suggest classical associations. They are the boats from the shipbuilding city of Nicea, in Asia Minor and there is a tale involving the quest toward heaven. Other words are direct references to ancient beliefs and stories.