The poems by Edgar Alan Poe and Hilda Doolittle are both allusion of Helen of Sparta who Greek mythology termed as the most beautiful woman that ever lived. Helen’s beauty is said to have caused wars and re-drew the history of Greece. The two poets’ portray Helen differently, while Poe marvels at her beauty and praises her passion and inspiration, Doolittle undermines this infamous beauty, casts as passionless and uninspiring.
Poe looks at Helen with adoration, praising her for her stunning beauty; inward and outward beauty. This adoration is seen in the lines "Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face” (Poe), where Poe worships Helen's beauty. Poe also appreciates how inspiring/ inviting Helen is in the lines "Thy Naiad airs have brought me home/ to the glory that was Greece” (Poe). Poe portrays Helen as amazing, somewhat even divine by stating that she may have come from “the regions which/ are Holy lands” (Poe). Poe portrays Helen as a divinely beautiful woman who is inspiring and passionate.
On the other hand, Doolittle casts Helen as a lady lacking passion, spiteful beauty, and a figure to be hated, not loved. Doolittle appears to hate Helen and portrays her as someone who lacks passion as seen in her description of her “still white eyes" (Doolittle). Unlike Poe, who views Helen as an inspiration, Doolittle looks at Helen's past as shameful and uninspiring since it makes her face lack life “when it grows wan and white, remembering past enchantments and past ills” (Doolittle). The poet portrays Helen’s figure as one that inspires “hate” and revulsion instead of passion.
There is a stark difference in the ways that the two poets look at Helen. Poe brings her beauty out as seen in the legend while Doolittle is spiteful of her beauty and portrays her as cold, passionless and almost a lifeless figure.
Works Cited
“ Doolittle, Hilda - Helen." PoemHunter.com. N.p., 2006. Web. 20 May 2016.
“ Poe, Edgar - To Helen." PoemHunter.com. N.p., 2006. Web. 20 May 2016.
