Helen -H.D (Hilda Doolittle)
All Greece hates
the still eyes in the white face,
the lustre as of olives
where she stands,
and the white hands.
All Greece reviles
the wan face when she smiles,
hating it deeper still
when it grows wan and white,
remembering past enchantments
and past ills.
Greece sees unmoved,
God's daughter, born of love,
the beauty of cool feet
and slenderest knees,
could love indeed the maid,
only if she were laid,
white ash amid funereal cypresses.
- Beauty is both a treasure and a curse.
- Perfection
- No emotion towards Helen.
- H.D describes the growing hatred of Helen.(General Theme).
- Clues on we know Helen is a statue: still eyes, cold feet, pale,slender, ash white, amid funeral (Negative description)
- 3 Themes towards to the poem: Appearances, Hate, & Woman's role
Moral of the poem
Helen
- The most beautiful woman of the world.
- Said to be Zeus daughter, (Zeus was inform of a swan) who impregnated Leda, the mortal wife of the king of Sparta, Tyndareus.
- Menelaus was wealthy and powerful man who wed to Helen because of the political choice of Tyndareus.
- Helen was kidnapped by the Prince of Troy Paris. Helen really didn't mind being kidnapped because she was in love with Paris
"The face that launched a thousand ships"
Hilda Doolittle
Born: September 10, 1886
Influence by Ezra Pound
Work : Imagists, classical mythology, economy language, lyric and epic
First woman to earn Award of Merit Medal for poetry.
Bisexual (Gay rights/ feminist movements)
Death: 1961
No relations with Dr.Dolittle