To Helen

Edgar Allan PoeFiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1831

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The Power of Beauty

The central theme of “To Helen” is the power that beauty has over the speaker. According to the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Poe “famously remark[ed] that the proper object of a poem is beauty” (545). Poe references Helen both in the title and the first word of the first line, and she is a woman whose beauty was powerful enough to cause the Trojan War. This allusion to Greek myth immediately casts the woman he adores as incredibly powerful. The speaker develops Helen of Troy’s ship-launching power, adding a new aspect to the power of his Helen’s beauty. The woman in his life is so beautiful that she can transport him home.

When describing what makes Helen beautiful, the speaker begins with the very top of her body—her hair. Helen’s hair is given the adjective “hyacinth” (Line 7), which is a kind of flower. This can be read to develop the aquatic imagery, as there is a water hyacinth. There are yellow hyacinths, usually grown on land, which points to Helen having blonde hair. This would make her beauty similar to that of other women whose features have been cataloged by poets. Poe’s list of her features does not include any other colors, but characterizing her face as having “classic” (Line 7) features points to the color palettes used in lists of women’s beautiful features from classic literature, also called blazons.

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More important than what her features look like is the power of Helen’s beauty to carry the traveling speaker home. The speaker says she “brought me home” (Line 8) and compares her beauty to a boat. Beauty, in many classic love lyrics and stories, is a torment that inspires rash actions. However, Poe casts beauty as a vessel that will bear the lover to his beloved. It protects him and helps him traverse “desperate seas” (Line 6). The sea is in dialogue with Helen’s beauty. Poe utilizes the tradition of characterizing ships as feminine, such as giving ships women’s names and female pronouns. Helen’s beauty empowers him to navigate the sea.

Helen is not only a sea-faring vessel but also a part of the domestic sphere. In the last stanza, Poe’s description of beauty aligns it with a lodestone, or something with a magnetic pull, as well as a guiding light. He writes: “Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche / How statue-like I see thee stand” (Lines 11-12). The exclamation “Lo!” is like a sighting of land from a boat. It moves Helen from carrying the speaker across the water, in boat form, to an embodied figure on land. He compares her posture to that of a statue. In addition to standing in a brightly lit window, she can be read as bright, or brilliant. This comes from the association between beauty and brightness, and the name Helen meaning a bright light. Furthermore, she holds a lamp. Her beauty’s power, when located in the home, is stability and illumination.

Romanticizing the Past

The home that Helen transports the speaker to can also be read as the romanticized past. Poe does not mention his actual homes in places such as Baltimore, Richmond, or Boston. According to the Princeton Encyclopedia, Poe “reserved particular wrath for the literary culture of Boston (‘Frogpondia’ to him)” (1484). Instead, Poe writes about “the glory that was Greece, / And the grandeur that was Rome” (Lines 9-10). Helen’s beauty takes him back to the glory and grandeur that appears in literary works. Glory generally refers to gaining fame for epic deeds in wars and battles, like the Trojan War. Grandeur implies a magnificence, such as the lavish style of ancient Rome.

Furthermore, Helen’s face is described as “classic” (Line 7), which can refer to the classic Greek and Latin texts and art. This comes up again in the final stanza with Helen’s statue-like posture. This can be read as a reference to classic Greek statues like the Venus de Milo. Poe is arguing that Helen’s beauty is too good for the modern era. He must reach into the past to describe her. “To Helen” showcases golden age thinking, which means believing that a past era was far superior to the current one. The golden age is an idealized past, one told in myths and art rather than one grounded thoroughly in historical fact.

Travel and Homecoming

Poe spent much of his life wandering, with no specific home, despite claims that Baltimore was his permanent and true residence. As an orphan at two years old, even the place of his birth was of little consequence to notions of place and homestead for the poet. From this, an element of autobiography can be seen in Poe’s description of “the weary, way-worn wanderer bore,” (Line 4) with “way-worn” especially invoking the poverty that led Poe to relocate many times. This reading is supported by the presence of the statue-like Helen in the window, much like the classical image of a woman on the balcony or at the window waiting for their lover to come home from their voyages at sea.

It is also worth noting that all of the cities Poe lived in during his time as a writer and poet (Baltimore, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia) are port cities, and the earliest version of “To Helen” appeared in Poe’s Poems, most of which were written while he was stationed at a naval fort. During his time in the military, Poe had chafed under military command, writing satirical poems about his officers and struggling with their intrusion into his family life. At the same time, his few deployments included travel by ship and shipboard tasks belowdecks working on ammunition supply and naval guns, further aligning Poe with the wanderer of yore (olden times).