Doolittle And To Helen

Known as the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen had started a war because of this. She was forcefully married to King Menelaus which made her Queen of Sparta. She was miserable and lonely until a visit from the people of Troy brought her and the handsome prince named Paris together. They fell in love and ran away together to Troy, this made Menelaus furious, so he assembled an army of Greek soldiers and declared war on Troy known as the Trojan War which lasted ten years long. In this poetry analysis I will talk about the two poems called “To Helen” by Edgar Allan Poe and “Helen” by Hilda Doolittle. Both poems are about Helen of Troy but Poe’s poem is romantic and H.D.’s poem is hateful.

The author of “To Helen” is known for his writing on weird and creepy subjects but Poe changed it up in this poem. The reason this poem is different, is because his first love died and this poem was like a tribute to her but if you really think about it, this poem found a way to be weird because his first love was his friend’s mom and he was only 14 years old. Poe uses similes, alliteration, and symbolism in this poem. In the first stanza Poe writes “Helen, thy beauty is to me; Like those Nicean barks of yore”, he is referring that his feelings at the sight of Helen’s beauty is the same feeling you get when you see victory ships. He also writes “The

Poe focuses more on her outer beauty, that's all he talks about, which is kind of shallow if you think about it. H.D. based her poem on the consequences of Helen’s actions, she focuses more on Helen’s inner personality. Another thing you might notice is one poem is written by a man and the other by a woman, so it’s ok that H.D. talked bad about Helen, if Poe did, he would get crap for it. Poe’s poem often rhymes and H.D.’s rhymed at least one time in each stanza. The only comparison between the two poems is they know she is beautiful and the cause of the Trojan