"Helen" by H.D.

The poem Helen by H.D. is a description of the contrasting views of how history views Helen and how Greece viewed her at the time of her incident with Paris, Prince of Troy. Whereas history tends to take the side of Helen as a victim in being seduced by Paris, H.D. is cold toward Helen in terms of Greece’s attitude toward her. H.D. presents Helen as a woman hated by Greece and her only escape of the hatred is death. In death, Helen will then become appreciated and admired for her beauty.

H.D.’s choice of words gives the reader the image of Helen being frozen in time. Starting each five line stanza (cinquain) with a statement about how Greece views Helen puts the reader among an audience of people who are simply examining Helen. Helen is therefore portrayed as an object that caused great anger and scorn among the Greeks. The Greeks are completely objective toward her and show no feeling of remorse for their attitudes toward her.

Several of the pairs of words H.D. uses when describing Helen contrast each other, illustrating the contrast between the current vision of Helen and the image of Helen during the Greek times. In the first cinquain, H.D. describes Helen with “still eyes in the white face” which contradicts “the luster as of olives where she stands.” Still eyes and a white face suggest colorlessness and maybe even shame whereas olives suggest a radiance and olives are also known as a symbol of peace in Greek culture. Later on in the poem, the last line describes Helen as “white ash amid funereal cypresses,” meaning Helen is dead. Cypresses are a distinctly different tree than olives and also have a different meaning. The cypress tree is a symbol of mourning whereas olives represent peace. H.D. is trying to explain to the reader that the only way for there to be peace is if Helen is being mourned for when she is dead.

When H.D. says that Helen is “God’s daughter, born of love,” she is making an ironic statement. In doing some light research, I came to know that Helen was not born out of love at all, it was out of lust. Zeus came down to the world as a swan and seduced Helen’s mother, Leda, into having sex with him. She then gave birth to Helen. H.D. intensifies this irony by describing Helen, who had just been seduced and abducted by Paris. The irony of love is summed up by H.D. describing Greece as only being able to love Helen once she is ash in the ground. Helen will not be any old ash either; she is “white ash.” The color white exemplifies that Helen’s beauty has died out and she is no longer alive. While alive, it is almost as if Greece has alienated Helen because of her unbelievable beauty. Once the color is removed from her body she is capable of being loved.