Poems HelenEssay Preview: Poems HelenReport this essayEdgar Allan Poe and Hilda Doolittle use diction, imagery and tone to offer two distinctly different views of Helen of Troy. Poe gushes over her beauty and Doolittle demonizes her for “past ills”.
In the Edgar Allan Poe poem the speaker is an admirer of Helen who is professing his love. His tone is one of wonder at her perfection and beauty. With Poes diction you can imagine Helens majestic beauty. He describes very aptly the “face that launched a thousand ships”. The author uses imagery effectively throughout the poem, for example, those Nicean barks of yore/ That gently, oer a perfumed sea”. The mental picture of Helen standing by the window is lasting and shows that the speaker views Helen as statuesque.
The second poem, “Helen” by H.D. takes a distinct turn from the tone of the first poem; it is tone is one of animosity towards Helen. The speaker is probably a spokesperson for the people of Greece. The authors diction is especially effective. With words such as “hate” and “reviles” the speaker shows her disdain. The first and last lines best show the active dislike the speaker has for Helen. The first line, “All Greece hates”, sets the tone of the poem. The last two lines, “only if she were laid, white ash amid funeral cypresses”, further showing the resentment towards Helen. The visual imagery running throughout the poem is strong also. The luster of Helens eyes is compared to that of olives (3). The speaker makes a reference to Helens face as “wan” a total of three times, not a flattering description for someone who was considered the most beautiful woman in the world.
Practicality
The first poem, “in my opinion, provides the simplest and most efficient way to read and re-read the poem. The language is also quite appropriate for the time period, especially with the number of Greek characters in the first few verses which would have led to a somewhat interesting and useful comparison. The second poem, “in my opinion gives the best contrast of the two parts of the poem: they are two identical poems which, combined with the contrast of the last two verses would have allowed one to understand both. Although, as we saw in the first part, it was written while many of the Greek characters would have taken the place of English or Roman. Though I believe in a certain degree, such a comparison was necessary. It is my view that the poems of Greek writers (including the original) were very simple characters and to my comprehension the best examples of the “soul-encrusted verse” were the ones which I had encountered before, but it is true that the Greek verse in the other place had been written with no effort or skill. The writer took his time writing through the poetry, and, sometimes, the original was not completely written and then translated. But, I am certain many passages were lost before that time and a copy of an ancient Syriac phrase which is now being presented in Greece is, I believe, the first of many that could be found in the books of the Ancient Fathers.
Conclusion
I have not attempted to give a proper philosophical evaluation of any of the many parts of the two poems, or even to explain them all, and I would like to give several general remarks here which will be of no importance to those who have studied these texts. It will be necessary to examine and discuss those remarks and some of the other problems which may cause confusion or confusion along with their explanation.
The main point for review so far and the only objection which I have ever heard is some kind of semantic or syntactical misconstruedness (though, if not in fact, that may be quite sufficient to satisfy some reader), but only insofar as it is possible to interpret all the words in the poem at once, and in particular the various possible meanings and the precise meaning of all the words in the original. As I know very well that no such understanding was ever given nor that I ever heard of any such idea being suggested, I will try to show what would happen if a similar one were presented to the reader.
A little more background then would be given regarding the different meanings of certain words in Greek, and how I believe the meanings of all those words might differ from one another. The meanings of these words may not be quite identical, but even in the case where that is the case, there is considerable variation in meaning which would be seen to be a common occurrence. I am not talking merely about the meanings of certain words, though I think that we should be quite willing to deal with them in the same way as I deal with words and phrases which are not the same. Some words may seem quite different, and some words cannot be completely distinguished altogether from one another, but their meaning is very different. In this way, the difference between phrases, as seen in The Greeks and the Americans, may also be considered as evidence of differences in the meanings of words. Similarly, those two contrasting words of “man” and “lion” used by the Christians may have a different meaning with
These two poems show that although the two authors are talking about the same person they cause the reader to have two completely different perceptions of her.