To Helen

Helen, thy beauty is to me

Like those Nicean barks of yore.

That gently o'er a perfumed sea,

The weary, way-worn wanderer bore

To his own native shore.

Helen of Troy

(1898)

Evelyn De Morgan

(1855-1919)
English Artist

On desperate seas long wont to roam,

Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,

Thy Naiad airs, have brought me home

To the glory that was Greece

And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche

How statue-like I see thee stand,

The agate lamp within thy hand!

Ah, Psyche, from the regions which

Are Holy Land!

"To Helen"

Edgar Allan Poe

(1809-1849)

American poet and writer