Helen was supposedly the most beautiful woman in Greece, who's face was said "to launch a thousand ships". This phrase coming from how Prince Paris of Troy saw Helen's beauty and took her for his own starting the ten year long Trojan War. The poems "To Helen" by Edgar Allen Poe and "Helen" by Eliza Doolittle both speak about Helen's beauty but the difference between the usages of diction, rhyme, and syntax create two entirely different attitudes.
The most obvious difference between the two poems is the diction choices. In "To Helen" Poe uses many Grecian references, alliteration, and speech much like that of Shakespearean times. This choice in diction relates "To Helen" to odes and sonnets even though the structure is not necessarily the same. Poe's choice in words also create a longing tone when speaking of Helen, making her beauty an aspiration. In "Helen", however, Helen's beauty is still an aspiration, they still want to keep it in statue form but Doolittle's choice of harsh, blunt words create the negative atmosphere around Helen, giving us reason to dislike Helen.
The rhyme scheme of each poem also conveys the tones and attitudes of each author towards them. Poe's consistent rhyme scheme creates a flowing voice throughout his poem along with the diction and syntax again creating the positive atmosphere around Helen. Doolittle, however, uses a few slant rhymes with very little true rhymes at all which adds to the harshness of her words.
Another component that separates the two poems is the syntactical choices. Poe's poem completes phrases while Doolittle's broken structures make us feel as if she were too angry to speak fluidly, adding emotion into her poem and forming the tone.
The flowing versus blunt diction, consistent in contrast to non consistent rhyme scheme, and fluid versus broken syntax both convey the beauty of Helen wth very different attitudes and tones.
Powerpoint
Tone Shifts
Annotations/ Close Reading/ Notes
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