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Edgar Allan PoeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“To Helen” is a lyric romantic poem. Romanticism as a poetic genre was a movement that began in the 18th century in England and Europe. It included poets such as William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Coleridge. Romantic poets rejected scientific practices in favor of imagination and emotion. Romanticism also frequently references classical works, often implying modern works can never live up to the greatness of ancient works of literature. “To Helen” alludes to several classical works, especially The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer and the lost text Cypria by Stasinus.
The Iliad describes the war between the Acheans (Greeks) and Trojans, incited by the love of a beautiful woman: Helen of Troy. Helen is described by Christopher Marlowe, famous English Renaissance poet, as possessing “the face that launched a thousand ships” in his work The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus. This connects Helen’s beauty with the ability to bring men across the sea, which is seen in Poe’s poem. The sequel to The Iliad, The Odyssey, follows the Greek hero of the Trojan war, Odysseus, traveling home to return to his wife, much like the wanderer in the first stanza of “To Helen.
By Edgar Allan Poe
A Dream Within a Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Annabel Lee
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Berenice
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Hop-Frog
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Ligeia
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Tamerlane
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The Black Cat
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The Cask of Amontillado
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The Conqueror Worm
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The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
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The Fall of the House of Usher
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The Gold Bug
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The Haunted Palace
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The Imp of the Perverse
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The Lake
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The Man of the Crowd
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The Masque of the Red Death
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The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan Poe
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Edgar Allan Poe
The Oval Portrait
Edgar Allan Poe