To Helen

“To Helen (earlier version)” by Edgar Allan Poe (1831)

This is the first publication of “To Helen.” Poe changed Lines 9 and 13 considerably between this version and the last version published in his lifetime. Originally, Poe wrote “To the beauty of fair Greece,” but changed it to “To the glory that was Greece” (Line 9). This adds the idea of glory to the poem instead of reiterating beauty. Poe also changed “The folded scroll” to “The agate lamp” (Line 13). Helen, instead of holding a scroll, is holding a lamp. This aligns her more with the mythological figure of Psyche and emphasizes her brightness as well as the overall imagery of light in the third stanza.

“To Helen (Sarah Helen Whitman)” by Edgar Allan Poe (1850)

This poem was written about a different woman Poe knew much later in life. It is good context to know he wrote two poems with the same title. This later and longer poem seems to be less frequently republished/anthologized than the earlier and shorter “To Helen” from 1831. Both poems are about beauty, a favorite poetic theme of Poe’s.

“Wild nights — Wild nights!’” by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was highly influenced by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. “Wild Nights — Wild Nights!” is an example of another 19th century poem that deals with the combination of person and place for a sailor returning home from the high seas. The poem also uses the device of persona. Dickinson’s persona is the speaker returning home while “To Helen” uses metaphor and symbolic language to compare the beauty of Helen to the feelings created by a sailor returning home. These contrasting styles, composed in similar New England coastal geography only a few decades apart, demonstrate the versatility of the image of a lover traveling on the sea.

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats (1819)

“To Helen” can be compared to “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by British Romantic poet John Keats. Keats’s line “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” in his poem is echoed by Poe’s theme of beauty. In his “Philosophy of Composition,” Poe writes, “Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem.” Keats’s fascination with Greek art is mirrored in Poe’s fascination with Helen of Troy and other Greek myths.