Cummings Study Guide

Type of Work

......."To Helen" is a lyric poem extolling the beauty of a woman. Poe wrote the poem in 1831 and later revised it. The Southern Literary Messenger published it in March 1836 and Graham's Magazine in September 1841. The text on this page is the 1841 version.

Background

.......Edgar Allan Poe wrote “To Helen” as a reflection on the beauty of Mrs. Jane Stith Stanard, of Richmond, Va., who died in 1824. She was the mother of one of Poe’s school classmates, Robert Stanard. When Robert invited Edgar, then 14, to his home (at 19th and East Grace Streets in Richmond) in 1823, Poe was greatly taken with the 27-year-old woman, who is said to have urged him to write poetry. He was later to write that she was his first real love.

Theme

.......The theme of this short poem is the beauty of a woman with whom Poe became acquainted when he was 14. Apparently she treated him kindly and may have urged him—or perhaps inspired him—to write poetry. Beauty, as Poe uses the word in the poem, appears to refer to the woman's soul as well as her body. On the one hand, he represents her as Helen of Troy—the quintessence of physical beauty—at the beginning of the poem. On the other, he represents her as Psyche—the quintessence of soulful beauty—at the end of the poem. In Greek, psyche means soul. For further information on Helen of Troy and Psyche, see the comments on the text of the poem.

Summary of the Poem

.......Poe opens the poem with a simile—“Helen, thy beauty is to me / Like those Nicéan barks of yore”—that compares the beauty of Helen (Mrs. Stanard, Background) with small sailing boats (barks) that carried home travelers in ancient times. He extends this boat imagery into the second stanza, when he says Helen brought him home to the shores of the greatest civilizations of antiquity, classical Greece and Rome. It may well have been that Mrs. Stanard’s beauty and other admirable qualities, as well as her taking notice of Poe’s writing ability, helped inspire him to write poetry that mimicked in some ways the classical tradition of Greece and Rome. Certainly the poem’s allusions to mythology and the classical age suggest that he had a grounding in, and a fondness for, ancient history and literature.
.......In the final stanza of the poem, Poe imagines that Mrs. Stanard (Helen) is standing before him in a recess or alcove in front of a window. She is holding an agate lamp, as the beautiful Psyche did when she discovered the identity of Eros (Cupid). For further information on the agate lamp, Psyche, and Eros, see the comments opposite the third stanza (below).

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Meter

The meter consists mainly of trimeters and tetrameters, with a dimeter at the end. Following are examples.

.......1.................2..............3..............4
That GENT..|..ly, O'ER..|..a PER..|..fumed SEA.............(line 3, iambic tetrameter)

.....1.............2................3
To HIS..|..own NA..|..tive SHORE.................................(line 5, iambic trimeter)

.......1...................2..................3
To the GLOR..|..y THAT..|..was GREECE.....................(line 9, trimeter with anapest and an iamb)

....1...............2
Are HO..|..ly- LAND....................................................(line 15, iambic dimeter)

The end rhyme of the poem is as follows:

Internal Rhyme

The poem also contains internal rhyme. Here are examples:

.......Following are examples of figures of speech in the poem. For definitions of figures of speech, see Literary Terms.

Alliteration

To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome. (lines 9 and 10)

On desperate seas long wont to roam (line 6)
Comparison of the seas to a human. (Wont implies a conscious decision.)

Simile

Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand (lines 11-11)
Comparison of the stance of Helen to that of a statue

.......Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston. After being orphaned at age two, he was taken into the home of a childless couple—John Allan, a successful businessman in Richmond, Va., and his wife. Allan was believed to be Poe’s godfather. At age six, Poe went to England with the Allans and was enrolled in schools there.
.......After he returned with the Allans to the U.S. in 1820, he studied at private schools, then attended the University of Virginia and the U.S. Military Academy, but did not complete studies at either school. After beginning his literary career as a poet and prose writer, he married his young cousin, Virginia Clemm. He worked for several magazines and joined the staff of the New York Mirror newspaper in 1844. All the while, he was battling a drinking problem. After the Mirror published his poem “The Raven” in January 1845, Poe achieved national and international fame.
.......Besides pioneering the development of the short story, Poe invented the format for the detective story as we know it today. He also was an outstanding literary critic. Despite the acclaim he received, he was never really happy because of his drinking and because of the deaths of several people close to him, including his wife in 1847. He frequently had trouble paying his debts. It is believed that heavy drinking was a contributing cause of his death in Baltimore on October 7, 1849.
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• Poe writes often about beauty. He and other writers use beautiful to describe women, flowers, babies, landscapes, sunsets, homes, and so on. Write an essay that attempts to define beauty. Use library research and the Internet. Include quotations from poetry.
• Briefly explain why Poe uses glory in reference to ancient Greece and grandeur in reference to ancient Rome.
• Poe compares Helen to Psyche, beloved of Eros (Cupid) in ancient mythology. Write an essay informing your readers about the myth of Cupid and Psyche.
• Do archaic or quaint words such a thy, thee, lo, and yon enhance the effect of the poem? Explain your answer.

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Murders in the Rue Morgue, Black Cat, Other Tales

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Complete Stories and Poems

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Cask of Amontillado, Tell-Tale Heart