Perception Ms. TurnerCherokee HS

• The following two poems are about Helen of Troy. Renowned in the ancient world for her beauty, Helen was the wife of Menelaus, a Greek king. She was carried off to Troy by the Trojan prince, Paris, and her abduction immediately caused the Trojan War.• Read the following two poems carefully.

Annotate for elements such as speaker, diction, imagery, form, and tone.

Helen--Hilda

Doolittle

All Greece hatesthe still eyes in the white face,the lustre as of oliveswhere she stands,and the white hands.

All Greece revilesthe wan face when she smiles,hating it deeper still when it grows wan and white,remembering past enchantmentsand past ills.

Greece sees, unmoved, God's daughter, born of love,the beauty of cool feetand slenderest knees,could love indeed the maid,only if she were laid,white ash amid funereal cypresses.

To Helen--Edgar Allan

Poe

Helen, thy beauty is to meLike those Nicean barks of yoreThat gently, o'er a perfumed sea,The weary, way-worn wanderer boreTo his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,Thy Naiad airs have brought me homeTo the glory that was Greece,And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo, in yon brilliant window-nicheHow statue-like I see thee stand,The agate lamp within thy hand,Ah! Psyche, from the regions whichAre Holy Land!

Questions to Consider…

•What are the apparent differences?•Mood? Language? Imagery? Character development?•Who could possibly be the speaker in each poem?