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Comment 30 of 30, added on October 3rd, 2007 at 8:05 PM.
The poem is hard to be understood due to my eastern background.i'm not
familiar with the myths of Greece,but Helen was so famous for her beauty
which lighted ten years war fire of Troy. The poem was inspired,as poe
admitted,by Mrs.Jane Stanard.who died in 1824 when Allan was at the age of
fifteen. Poe called her" the first purely idasl love of my soul", the draft
of the poem was wroten when Poe was fourteen and rigorous revisions had
been made before it first published in 1831. maybe the personal emotion of
young poet was almost sublimated in the idealization of the supernal beauty
in art which Poe had always insisted untill his death in 1849
Tony from China
Comment 29 of 30, added on April 24th, 2007 at 4:53 PM.
Actually Arielle is correct, the poem is in fact about Helen of Troy. I am
not saying that there could not be some underlying meaning in the poem but
on the AP exam the graders stated..."The following poem is about Helen of
Troy...Renowned in teh ancient world for her beauty Helen was the wife of
Menelaus, A Greek king..etc."
Jocylin from United States
Comment 28 of 30, added on April 4th, 2007 at 9:00 AM.
why does he use the w..like i know its a repetitive words..with w? but why
w..?
ang from United States
Comment 27 of 30, added on March 13th, 2007 at 11:06 PM.
erin helped a lot, thanks...
now about the subject....there's never a concrete answer, has anyone ever
considered that a poem is layered with an obvious meaning and other
meanings at the same time....yea it's about helen, the college board says
so anyway...but if it were ONLY about helen then it wouldn't be classic
poetry, it'd be a poem about helen....the underlying themes and purposes
are left to interpretation and only poe could tell us who it was
about...but instead of finding a specific person who could be the subject,
generalizations will get you closer to the theme of the poem and will give
you a more universal sense of its meaning and significance....so yeah
shinny from United States
Comment 26 of 30, added on April 10th, 2006 at 6:34 PM.
This poem isn't about Helen of Troy. He makes a metaphor to Helen of Troy
and Psyche in order to describe the beauty of his first love, Mrs. Stanard.
Helen of Troy was the most beautiful woman in Greek mythology and Psyche
was a princess whom Eros (the Greek and Roman god of love) was in love
with. Psyche literally means soul in Greek, and therefore Helen of Troy
represents Mrs. Stanard's physical beauty while Psyche represents Mrs.
Stanard's soulful beauty.
Trust me. I did a 4000 word essay on this.
miranda from United States
Comment 25 of 30, added on April 6th, 2006 at 5:19 AM.
WE AGREEEE!!! UH UH
Altri 3 from Australia
Comment 24 of 30, added on March 24th, 2006 at 3:40 AM.
This poem seems us very beautiful
igor & steo from Australia
Comment 23 of 30, added on March 8th, 2006 at 12:51 PM.
atually this poem is written about Helen Whitman a poet. She wrote him a
poem on valentimes day and he returned the favor by writing "to helen"
jessica from United States
Comment 22 of 30, added on March 4th, 2006 at 5:47 PM.
And Arielle, how are you so positively sure that it is a poem based on
Helen of Troy? Although it's a very popular idea, it does not mean it's
right.
I believe that although the poem may have had some influence from Helen of
Troy, Poe does not describe her beauty, but rather the idea of beauty at
its perfection.
Deborah from China
Comment 21 of 30, added on February 1st, 2006 at 6:40 PM.
Poe is not specifically apostrophizing Helen of Troy. Rather, he is
discussing beauty and all beautiful woman. He longs for the comfort and
hope that such perfection embodies. A flawlessly beautiful woman holding a
light is a beacon of hope. I like to think of the Statue of Liberty as an
image for this poem, although it did not exist when Poe composed this work.
Sarah from United States
This poem has been commented on more than 10 times. Click below to see the other comments.
[1] 2 3
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The poem is hard to be understood due to my eastern background.i'm not
familiar with the myths of Greece,but Helen was so famous for her beauty
which lighted ten years war fire of Troy. The poem was inspired,as poe
admitted,by Mrs.Jane Stanard.who died in 1824 when Allan was at the age of
fifteen. Poe called her" the first purely idasl love of my soul", the draft
of the poem was wroten when Poe was fourteen and rigorous revisions had
been made before it first published in 1831. maybe the personal emotion of
young poet was almost sublimated in the idealization of the supernal beauty
in art which Poe had always insisted untill his death in 1849
Tony from China