Poem Analysis Of Helen By Hilda Doolittle

It was once said a golden apple would be the reward to the fairest woman, but for a reward there is a cost. The cost for that golden apple was the lives of thousands of men. Well, this apple would be the reward to the fairest woman by the judgement of Paris, Prince of Troy. Unexpectedly, it would also create a war that lasted for ten years. How it happened was a woman named Helen was promised to become the bride to king Menelaus, forcefully, she became the Queen of Sparta. Years later, Troy went to Sparta for a peace treaty. However, once Paris and Helen met, marriage didn’t stop them from falling in love. Helen loved him so much that she left with Paris, to Troy. Provoking men to die, wives to be mournful, and children being raised without

Hilda Doolittle was a woman that went by a H.D., the reason she went by H.D. was because she wanted the same respect as an author like men did. Hilda Doolittle made this poem to see the perspective of how Greece saw Helen,how she betrayed her kingdom for love. The style of this poem was hatred and bitterness, the meaning/significance of this story was how Helen was seen in Greece. The author’s main idea was describing how Greece felt and Helen’s reaction. The author did free verse,she did have poetic devices like hyperbole and metaphor. In this case, “The lustre as of olives where she stands and the white hands.”This statement is a metaphor, she compares Helen’s appearance to olives how shiny but dark or green, like her radiance. The inference I made was Helen will never be forgiven and will be miserable for the action she has taken. Due to the way H.D. expressed helen’s guiltiness, seeing how in the second stanza “The wan face when she smiles”. H.D. describes Helen being pale by her guiltiness even if she smiles. Also the only way she could be forgiven is if she dies since in the last stanza it said“White ash amid funereal cypresses.”Unless it’s sarcasm ,and won’t be forgiven because the author did use sarcasm in the line “God’s daughter, born of love”,as mother was raped by Zeus and not in love. Hilda Doolittle expressed Greece hatred towards Helen, which is different how Edgar Poe

Hilda Doolittle and Edgar Poe are amazing writers yet two distinctive writers. Edgar Poe expresses about her outer beauty, yet Hilda Doolittle expresses her inner beauty, how Greece despises it.For instance, in the poem “To Helen “ by Edgar Poe it said “Thy hyacinth hair , thy classic face, Thy Naiad airs have brought me home”,the author used an alliteration with “hyacinth hair”,but he compared her hair to a flower and her face structure being elegant, gorgeous. Evenmore, “Naiads” are water spirits, said to be very beautiful just like his description of Helen. On the other hand, the other poem “Helen” by H.D., is a hatred poem. For example, in the third stanza it said“Thy beauty of cool feet, and slenderest knees”, H.D. demonstrate how how Greece sees her ,but not affected by Helen’s predicament , and will only see her with hatred and loathe her. As you can see both poems describe two different perspectives, since one is a man and the other is a woman. Moreover, their two poems explain her physical appearance, except Edgar Poe describes how attractive she was, and H.D. describes how her guiltiness is shown in her appearance. Above all, both talked about Greece was at war. Given that in the poem “To Helen” it said “To glory that was Greece”, since Greece won the Trojan war, given its glory. At the same time, in the poem “Helen” it said