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    To Helen

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    Nina
    The document provides background information on Edgar Allan Poe and analyzes his famous poem "To Helen". It discusses that the poem was inspired by Jane Stanard, a young woman who died when Poe was 15. It then summarizes the poem in 3 stanzas, analyzing the imagery and rhetorical devices. Finally, it answers questions about comparisons in the poem and the meaning behind Helen's appearance at the end.

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    To Helen

    Uploaded by

    Nina
    242 views19 pages
    The document provides background information on Edgar Allan Poe and analyzes his famous poem "To Helen". It discusses that the poem was inspired by Jane Stanard, a young woman who died when Poe was 15. It then summarizes the poem in 3 stanzas, analyzing the imagery and rhetorical devices. Finally, it answers questions about comparisons in the poem and the meaning behind Helen's appearance at the end.

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    The document provides background information on Edgar Allan Poe and analyzes his famous poem "To Helen". It discusses that the poem was inspired by Jane Stanard, a young woman who died when Poe was 15. It then summarizes the poem in 3 stanzas, analyzing the imagery and rhetorical devices. Finally, it answers questions about comparisons in the poem and the meaning behind Helen's appearance at the end.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    242 views19 pages

    To Helen

    Uploaded by

    Nina
    The document provides background information on Edgar Allan Poe and analyzes his famous poem "To Helen". It discusses that the poem was inspired by Jane Stanard, a young woman who died when Poe was 15. It then summarizes the poem in 3 stanzas, analyzing the imagery and rhetorical devices. Finally, it answers questions about comparisons in the poem and the meaning behind Helen's appearance at the end.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 19

    To Helen

    Contents

    1 The poet
    2 The background
    3 The poem
    4 Answers to
    questions
    1
    The poet

    Who is Edgar Allan Poe…


    The first one of detective story
    Edgar Allan Poe(January
    19,1809-October 7, 1849
    •Experience
    Losing Being Startin Marrin
    Passing
    his adopte g g his
    away
    parents d writing cousin

    • Thoughts toward
    composition
     Short
     Sadness
     Supernal beauty
    Works
    Novels
    Ligeia( 丽姬娅 ) 1838-09
    The Fall of the House of Usher( 厄舍府的倒塌 ) 1839-09
    The Murders in the Rue Morgue( 莫格街谋杀案 ) 1841-04
    The Masque of the Red Death( 红死病的假面具 ) 1842-05
    The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket( 阿瑟 · 戈登 · 皮姆的故 1837 年 1-2 月前两章， 1838 年 7 月全
    事) 部出完
    … …

    poems
    Tamerlane( 帖木儿 ) 1827-07
    Sonnet——To Science( 十四行诗——致科学 ) 1829
    To Helen( 致海伦 ) 1831
    The Raven( 乌鸦 ) 1845-01-29
    … …
    2
    The backgroun
    d
    The famous poem was inspired,
    as Poe admitted, by Mrs. Jane
    Stanard, a young mother of his
    classmate, Robert Stanard, who
    The died in 1824 when he was at
    background the age of 15. After her death,
    Poe called her “the first purely
    information ideal love of my soul.” Under
    the sad of losing the beauty,
    Poe created the poem to
    3
    The poem
    To Helen
    Helen, thy beauty is to me Lo! In yon brilliant window-
    Like those Nicean barks of niche
    yore How statue-like I see
    That gently, o’er a perfumed thee stand,
    sea, The agate lamp within
    The weary, way-worn thy hand!
    wanderer bore Ah, Psyche, from the
    To his own native shore. regions which
    Are Holy-Land!

    On desperate seas long wont to


    roam,
    Simile
    Helen, thy beauty is to me Helen’s beauty is like
    those Nicean barks of
    Like those Nicean barks of yore Hyperbole
    yore Helen’s beauty
    makes the sea
    That gently, o’er a perfumed perfumed.

    sea, Olfactory image


    The weary, way-worn Visual image
    wandererThe
    bore beauty of
    To hisappearance
    own native shore.
    On desperate seas long wont to Parallelism
    Thy…thy…thy…
    roam, Metaphor
    Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic Pun
    face,
    Thy Naiad airs have brought me Visual image
    home
    To the glory that was Greece,
    The beauty of
    And the grandeur that was Rome.
    Lo! In yon brilliant window- Simile
    Helen is like a
    niche statue standing
    there with the
    How statue-like I see thee agate lamp
    stand, Visual image
    The agate lamp within thy Metaphor
    Helen is so beauty
    hand! like Psyche in the
    Thethebeauty
    Ah, Psyche, from regions of myth

    which
    soul
    To Helen Lo! In yon brilliant window-
    Helen, thy beauty is to me[mi:] niche[nɪtʃ]
    Like those Nicean barks of yore[jɔ:]How statue-like I see thee
    That gently, o’er a perfumed sea[si:],
    stand[stænd],
    The weary[ˈwɪəri], way[weɪ]-wornThe agate lamp within thy
    wanderer[ˈwɒndərə(r)] bore[bɔ:] hand[hænd]!
    To his own native shore[ʃɔ:]. Ah, Psyche, from the regions
    Rhyme scheme Alliteration
    which[wɪtʃ]
    Rhyme scheme
    Are Holy-Land[lænd]!
    On desperate seas long wont to roam[rəʊm],
    Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face[feɪs],
    Thy Naiad airs have brought me home[həʊm]
    To the glory[ˈglɔ:ri] that was Greece[ɡri:s],
    And the grandeur[ˈgrændʒə(r)]that was
    Beauty of the poem
    •The beauty of theme
    •The beauty of musical
    rhyme
    •The beauty of rhetoric
    •The beauty of diction
    4
    Answers to ques
    tions
    Ⅰ. Why does the poet compare Helen’s beauty to “those
    Nicean barks of yore”?
    • They have some similarities . Both Helen and “those
    Nicean barks of yore” are elegant, beautiful and sublime.
    • Secondly, the boat can ship the wanderers back home;
    Helen is just like the spiritual boat transporting them
    Ⅱ.back
    Whattohave
    their brought
    spiritualthe
    home.
    wayfaring speaker
    home?
    • Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
    Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
    Ⅲ. In what form does Helen appear in the final stanza?
    Why does she carry a lamp in her hands?
    • In the last stanza, Helen appears in the image of the
    Goddess of Psyche holding a lamp in her hand. In fact,
    it is the image of the Goddess when she found her
    husband’s identity. The poet use the image of the
    Goddess to express that Helen is just like his spiritual
    home here.
    References

    • Baidu Baike （百度百科）


    • Baidu Libraray （百度文库） To_Helen- 致海伦诗歌赏析
    • Baidu Libraray （百度文库） 4. Poe&To helen open class
    新
    • 田丽玲 . 唯美主义视角下的海伦形象评析 [J]. 科技资
    讯 ,2015,13(18):212-213.
    • 周建新 . 《英语诗歌经典译析》 .[M]. 南宁 : 广西人民出
    版社 .2010.3
    • 常耀信编 . 《美国文学史 . 上册》 .[M]. 天津 : 天津南开大
    学出版社 .1998.10 （ 2004.12 重印）
    • 赵红英主编 . 《美国文学简史学习指南》 .[M]. 北京 : 中
    国传媒大学出版社 .2006.12
    thanks

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