Edgar Allan Poe wrote "To Helen" in honor of a woman named Jane Stanard, who died many years before he published this poem in The Raven, and Other Poems (1845). The speaker of "To Helen" doesn't just see his beloved as beautiful. He sees her as stunningly beautiful, lovely as the legendary Helen of Troy herself—and the very sight of her face transports him to a world of classical myth and magic. Beauty, in this poem, is both overwhelming and strangely comforting: gazing at his goddess-like beloved, the speaker feels he's come home at last.
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The Full Text of “To Helen”
1Helen, thy beauty is to me
2 Like those Nicean barks of yore,
3That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
4 The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
5 To his own native shore.
6On desperate seas long wont to roam,
7 Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
8Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
9 To the glory that was Greece,
10 And the grandeur that was Rome.
11Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
12 How statue-like I see thee stand,
13The agate lamp within thy hand!
14 Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
15 Are Holy-Land!
The Full Text of “To Helen”
1Helen, thy beauty is to me
2 Like those Nicean barks of yore,
3That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
4 The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
5 To his own native shore.
6On desperate seas long wont to roam,
7 Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
8Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
9 To the glory that was Greece,
10 And the grandeur that was Rome.
11Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
12 How statue-like I see thee stand,
13The agate lamp within thy hand!
14 Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
15 Are Holy-Land!
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“To Helen” Summary
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“To Helen” Themes
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The Power of Beauty
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “To Helen”
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Lines 1-2
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore, -
Lines 3-5
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore. -
Lines 6-8
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home -
Lines 9-10
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome. -
Lines 11-15
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!
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“To Helen” Symbols
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The Lamp
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“To Helen” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Allusion
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Apostrophe
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Enjambment
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Imagery
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Simile
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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“To Helen” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Helen
- Thy
- Nicean barks
- Yore
- O'er
- Way-worn
- Bore
- Desperate
- Wont to
- Hyacinth
- Classic
- Naiad
- Airs
- Lo!
- Yon brilliant window-niche
- Thee
- Agate
- Psyche
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “To Helen”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“To Helen” Speaker
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“To Helen” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “To Helen”
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More “To Helen” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poe Museum — Visit the website of the Poe Museum to learn more about Poe's life and work.
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A Brief Biography — Learn about Poe's life at the Poetry Foundation, and find links to more of his poems.
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Poe and Jane Stanard — Learn more about Poe's sweet, sad relationship with Jane Stanard, the woman "To Helen" honors—and read an early draft of the poem.
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The Poem in Pop Culture — See Tom Hanks reciting this poem (to sleazy effect) in the Coen brothers' version of The Ladykillers.
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Poe's Legacy — Learn more about Poe's poetic reputation (and about the afterlife of "To Helen" in particular).
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
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