To Helen
Helen, thy beauty is to meLike those Nicéan barks of yoreThat gently, o’er a perfumed sea,The weary way-worn wanderer boreTo his own native shore.
On desperate seas long wont to roam,Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,Thy Naiad airs have brought me homeTo the glory that was Greece,And the grandeur that was Rome.
Lo, in yon brilliant window-nicheHow statue-like I see thee stand,The agate lamp within thy hand!Ah, Psyche, from the regions whichAre holy-land!
Words in this poem
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- desperate a.
- Without hope; given to despair; hopeless. [L. desperatus, p. p. of desperare. See Despair, and cf. Desperado.]
- classic a.
- Of or relating to the first class or rank, especially in literature or art. [L. classicus relating to the classes of the Roman people, and especially to the frist class; hence, of the first rank, superior, from classis class: cf. F. clas]
- naiad n.
- A water nymph; one of the lower female divinities, fabled to preside over some body of fresh water, as a lake, river, brook, or fountain. [L. naias, -adis, naïs, -idis, a water nymph, Gr naïade. Cf. Naid.]
- psyche n.
- A lovely maiden, daughter of a king and mistress of Eros, or Cupid. She is regarded as the personification of the soul.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Helen is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of Edgar Allan Poe, Project Gutenberg ebook #79019; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edgar Allan Poe, To Helen, in The Raven, and Other Poems (1827–1849), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #79019, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poe-poems/to-helen-2.html, id L04194.
Form and metre
To Helen is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABB meA · yoreB · seaA · boreB · shoreB
- 2 A-A-A roamA · face · homeA · greece · romeA
- 3 ABBAB nicheA · standB · handB · whichA · landB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Helen, thy beauty is to me | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Like those Nicéan barks of yore | 7 | ······· |
| That gently, o’er a perfumed sea, | 8 | ·/˘··˘/· |
| The weary way-worn wanderer bore | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To his own native shore. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| On desperate seas long wont to roam, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Thy Naiad airs have brought me home | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To the glory that was Greece, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And the grandeur that was Rome. | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| Lo, in yon brilliant window-niche | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| How statue-like I see thee stand, | 8 | ·/······ |
| The agate lamp within thy hand! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Ah, Psyche, from the regions which | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Are holy-land! | 4 | ·/˘· |
On this poem
Notes from the edition 5
Notes by J. Montgomery Gambrill, Selections from Poe (Boston, 1907; Project Gutenberg #8893).
- Stanza 1, line 2 Nicæan barks. It is impossible to say exactly what this allusion means. Professor W.P. Trent aptly suggests that if "wanderer" in line 4 refers to Ulysses, as seems likely, "Phæacian" would have been the right word, since the Phæacians did convey Ulysses to Ithaca. Poe may have had that idea in mind and used the wrong word, or this may simply be a characteristically vague suggestion of antiquity. Point out similar examples of indefinite suggestion in this poem.
- Stanza 2, line 2 hyacinth hair: a favorite term with Poe. In "The Assignation" he says of the Marchesa Aphrodite, "Her hair ... clustered round and round her classical head, in curls like those of the young hyacinth." The hair of Ligeia, in the story of that title, he calls "the raven-black, the glossy, the luxuriant and naturally-curling tresses, setting forth the full force of the Homeric epithet, 'hyacinthine.'"
- Stanza 2, line 3 Naiad airs: suggestive of exquisite grace. The Naiads, in classical mythology, are water nymphs,--lovely maidens presiding over brooks and fountains.
- Stanza 2, line 4 9, 10. Two of Poe's best and most frequently quoted lines. Explain the fitness of the epithets. Originally the lines read: To the beauty of fair Greece And the grandeur of old Rome. Is the change an improvement? Explain.
- Stanza 3, line 4 Psyche: the Greek word for "soul," and also the name of a beautiful maiden whom Cupid himself loved and wedded. Read the story in Gayley's "Classic Myths."
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