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HELEN, thy beauty is to me
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Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o’er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
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To his own native shore.
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
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Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, [page 25:]
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Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
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To the glory that was Greece
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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
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Are Holy Land!
[The following notes appear at the bottom of page 24:]
* These beautiful stanzas (which may be confounded unfortunately with another of Poe's best poems bearing the same name) were first published in the collection of 1831.
2. What Poe means by Nicean is a matter of doubt. None of the classical Nicasas will fit the passage, but if “the weary, wayworn wanderer” is Ulysses, as seems most likely, the adjective is either intentionally or unintentionally substituted for Phæacian — cf. Odyssey VI.-VIII. The Phæacians did have marvelous ships and they did convey Ulysses to Ithaca. If, however, no specific wanderer is meant, the present editor can but surmise that Poe was not troubling himself about the actual meaning of the epithet he employed.
[The following note appears at the bottom of page 24, running to the bottom of page 25:]
7. “The raven-black, the glossy, the luxuriant and naturally-curling [page 25:] tresses, setting forth the full force of the Homeric epithet, ‘hyacinthine,’” Ligeia. It is perhaps pedantic to point out that “hyacinthine” is not, strictly speaking, a Homeric epithet.
[The following notes appear at the bottom of page 25:]
8. Naiads were young and beautiful virgins who in Greek mythology presided over rivers, springs, and fountains.
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Notes:
None.
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[S:0 - WPT97, 1897 and 1898] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Editions - To Helen (W. P. Trent, 1897 and 1898)