To Helen

by Edgar Allan Poe

The famous short love poem To Helen by Edgar Allan Poe.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Romance, Fiction, American, Mythology, 19th Century

2 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 31, 1831

About the author

The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.

Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.

The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...

Reviews

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful love poem. It oozed with the dark, moody melancholy he is famous for, but there were definite hints and sparks of hope that love can bring.

[Dunya Al-bouzidi · Rating 2 out of 5]

"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."

[Jinx:The:Poet {the LiteraryWanderer & WordRoamer} · Rating 4 out of 5]

"To Helen"
By 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!"

[Siobhan · Rating 1 out of 5]

To Helen is a quick little poem from Poe, one I wasn’t crazy about.

I’m not the biggest poetry lover, if I’m honest, but I’ve found some of Poe’s work really appeals to me. Unfortunately, such was not the case here. I can see why people enjoy this one, but it wasn’t for me.

[Salem ☥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"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."

a short but beautiful poem about helen of troy, in which poe is imitating sappho. it's full of romance and tenderness.

[gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this, but I like anything related to Greece and Rome.

[Ryu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poe-try-- get it? Get it? Hahahahah this is why I don't have many friends...

[Izzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

“What wild heart-histories seemed to he enwritten
Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!
How dark a woe, yet how sublime a hope!”

[Nicole]

Watch the livestream discussion
https://youtu.be/JTkfDREpaHo

[Eduard Gafton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as part of the volume "Edgar Allan Poe Complete Tales and Poems".

Why are there two poems with the same name?

3 stars for the shorter "To Helen".

- A few poems later -

At least it's the same Helen !

Reading this I could clearly evaluate and observe how much better Poe got in the time since the first poem dedicated to Helen.

No footstep stirred: the hated world all slept, save only thee and me. ( Oh, Heaven! - oh, God! How my heart beats in coupling those two words!

4 stars for the longer To Helen.

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was a tad tricky. Two poems by Edgar Allan Poe, both titled "To Helen," and me having know idea which one applies to this listing. Sooooo. . .

I have arranged my takeaway thoughts on Poe's "To Helen," published in 1831 (the shorter of the two), into one haiku:

"No one will mistake
What carries a person home
When they've got it bad."


And I have arranged my takeaway thoughts on Poe's "To Helen," publish in 1848 (the longer of the two), into another haiku:

"Words hardly matter
In those whispering moments
That tail you through life."

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely wee poem.

[John Yelverton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edgar Allan Poe writes a poem to a woman named Helen. Whether it's Helen of Troy is debatable, but there's definitely some allusion to her.

[Lucía · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greeks, Greeks everywhere ❤

[Amelia Bujar · Rating 1 out of 5]

FULL REVIEW ON MY WEBSITE
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...

This poem however needs to get points for the part of being sort of oozed with the dark, moody melancholy and gothic vibe to it.

This poem feels also like it is sort of related to Greece and Rome.

The main problem with this poem is that it is stereotypical “love” poem which I am not a fan of. I would rather watch Twilight on repeat for a week than read a stereotypical “love” poetry. And Twilight in my opinion is one of the worst movies ever created.

[Sajjad Alijani · Rating 2 out of 5]

ادگار آلن پو اشارات و سفرهای زیادی به ایران و مخصوصاً شهر شیراز داشته و در شعرهای او واژگانی مانند: پرسپولیس، شیراز و نامی از شاهزادهٔ دختر ایرانی وجود داشته.
می‌توان گمان کرد این شعر هم در شیراز و باغی سرسبز(طبق گفتهٔ شعر) نوشته شده و ماه، تشبیهی از دختری ایرانی در چادر نماز سفید بوده که این‌هم در شعر اشاره شده.
خود شعر چیز خاصی نداشت و آنگونه گه یک شعر عاشقانه می‌بایست گیرایی و دلنشینی و همچنین همزادپنداری خواننده رو به همراه داشته باشد چیزی در چنته نداشت و کاملا معمولی بود.

[Madi Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

okay to be wrote about the way edgar writes about "Helen" in the 1800's. He describes in all ways he sees her beauty in contrast to the world around him which I absolutely adore.

Sometimes I cannot believe this was wrote in 1831 because the writing was so beautiful and similar in some way how we write to the people we love.

[Leah Markum · Rating 1 out of 5]

I should probably stay away from stereotypical "love" poetry. I'm sure it sounds romantic by pure wordage to some, but since it's remote and superficial at it's core--more about the idea of love than a deep, personal love--, it just seems corny to me.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite Poe poem I've read so far (although it's only a few). I think the imagery here is really astounding. And while to be fair I've forgotten a lot of the poetry I've read in my various classes that covered the subject, I think this may be my favorite love poem I've read so far.

[Esha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 2023 as part of Selected Works of Edgar Allan Poe.

[Ainsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five starts because If someone described me this way I think I’d die of happiness but also maybe one star because now I’m jealous Poe isn’t alive now to describe me this way and wasted all his words and imagery on people who aren’t me. :( or (: or |: or x x
—

[Andy Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

"...Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche..."

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short little love poem from Poe is very readable and quite enjoyable.

[امیرمحمد · Rating 4 out of 5]

ظریف و دلنشین، اما نه‌چندان موفق در صناعات ادبی. همچنان لورکا بهتر است.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't get the ryme, maybe it's a me problem, but there was hardly a rhythm to grasp, about him potentially having stolen a girls eyes? Who knows, I certainly don't

[AinthelandofE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful fluidity
It helped me understand poetry's structure more.

[TopBob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poe is a great poet, but sometimes the ideas in the poem just don't interest me, and I am not alone.

[Ray Alvarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

The face that launched a thousand ships.

Odd to see Poe going in on love with no darkness and down spiraling worked in.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

far up in Heaven—the stars I kneel to In the sad, silent watches of my night; While even in the meridian glare of day I see them still—two sweetly scintillant Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!

[ガッ チ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think the vocabulary can help me writing..