Helen

Helen

Edgar Allan Poe

Helen, thy beauty is to me

Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, wayworn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand!
Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land!

Reflection
How does this poem compare to other Poe poems?
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Some Notes
 
from Shmoop.com

Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore

• The poem begins with the speaker talking to a woman named Helen, whose beauty has been to him "like those Nicean barks of yore." 
• Before we say anything else, note that the comparison uses the word "like," which means that it's a simile.
• Also, we'll go ahead and tip you to the fact that this simile is going to go on for almost five lines.
• A long simile like this is called an epic or Homeric simile (after the Greek poet Homer). They call it an epic simile because, well, it's epic—long, grand, grandiose, marvelous, maravilloso.
• Now that we've gone on our own little epic detour, let's get back to all those strange words.
• First off, Poe is not referring to a real woman named Helen, but to a woman named Jane Stanard, the mother of one of his childhood friends. Poe would later claim that she was his first love. Keep in mind that he fell in love with her when he was about fourteen years old! Some scholars think that Jane Stanard was the first person to encourage Poe to write poetry. (For more on this, check out our "In a Nutshell" section.)
• So wait a minute—if her name was Jane, why does he call her Helen?
• In ancient Greek mythology, Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world. 
• She was so beautiful, in fact, that a guy from across the sea named Paris kidnapped her and took her back to Troy (a mythical city located in what is now Turkey).
• (Trivia note: the modern city of Paris, France is not named after this thieving Paris from Asia.)
• Anyway, Paris' bold move sparked a ten-year conflict known as the Trojan War, one of the most important events in Greek mythology. It is the subject of one of the most famous epic poems ever written, Homer's Iliad. (And no, this Homer is not to be confused with Homer Simpson.)
• You can read all about Helen and the Trojan War here.
• But what about those "Nicean barks"? "Barks" is an old word that means "boats" or "ships" (this is probably because the Latin word for "ship" is barca).
• "Nicean" is not some weird form of the word "nice," but an adjective meaning "from Nicaea." Nicaea was ancient city on the west coast of Turkey. Its modern name is Iznik. 
• So, Poe compares Helen's beauty to some ships from Nicaea? Weird, weird, weird.
• How can beauty be like a ship? Does it sail? Let's keep reading and see if he explains it for us.