How can a pretty face cause so much damage? In stories of greek mythology Helen, “one” of the most beautiful women in the world. Was married to the king of sparta. Sparta and troy were making peace. Prince paris was promised Helen by aphrodite. Both poems will be talking about the beautiful Helen on troy, AKA “the face of a thousand ships”. In poe’s “ To Helen” it will be more about love. In Doolittle”s “Helen” it’s more about hate. In this paper I will be comparing and contrasting two poems focusing specifically on poe’s “ To helen”, Doolittle’s “Helen”, and similarities and differences in both.
In poe’s poem “To Helen”, he used quite a bit of figurative language. In his poem he used alliteration to describe the journey of Odysseus. The line was “the weary, wayworn wanderer”. Saying that she gives him the feeling of coming home. He also used a simile which was “Helen, thy beauty is to me like those nicean barks of yore”. Which compared her to a beautiful ship. In this poem it had a pretty solid rhyme scheme. That’s what really brings out the love aspect of the whole poem.
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In her poem she used a simile. Which was “the lustre as of olives”, which has three meanings to me. She could be addressing her eyes as a glossy green, or she could be talking about her envy towards her. But she could mainly also be talking about the symbol of the greek flag. She also used symbolism “ could love indeed the maid only if she were laid, white ash amid funereal cypresses”. This means that sha could only love her when she is dead and burned to ashes. In this poem Doolittle didn’t really put in a rhyme scheme which cosplays with the hate