To Helen致海伦

To Helen《致海伦》

Helen, thy beauty is to me 海伦，在我眼里，你的美

Like those Nicean barks of yore 宛若从前尼西亚的归船，

That gently, o’er a perfumed sea, 轻轻漂过芳香的海洋，

The weary, way-worn wanderer bore 载着疲惫不堪的游子，

To his own native shore. 回到他故乡的海岸。

On desperate seas long wont to roam, 我长期漂泊在失望的海岸，

Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, 你风信子般的秀发和古典美的面庞，

Thy Naiad airs have brought me home 你仙女般的风采让我领会了

To the glory that was Greece, 希腊的光荣，

And the grandeur that was Rome. 罗马的辉煌。

Lo! In yon brilliant window-niche 瞧! 在那灿烂的窗边神龛里

How statue-like I see thee stand, 我看见你手持玛瑙灯，

The agate lamp within thy hand! 伫立如雕塑一般!

Ah, Psyche, from the regions which啊，来自圣地的

Are Holy-land! 蒲赛克仙女

体裁 Lyric poetry

主题The theme of this short poem is the beauty of a woman with whom Poe became acquainted when he was 14. The poet compares himself to be Odysseus, who wandered for ten years to get home. Helen, the beauty, is his guide to come home. Three beauties in ancient Greek mythology, Helen, Naiad and Psyche, to show the beauty in the poet’s eye is holy and hard to reach. Apparently she treated him kindly and may have urged him–or perhaps inspired him–to write poetry. Beauty, as Poe uses the word in the poem, appears to refer to the woman's soul as well as her body. On the one hand, he represents her as Helen of Troy–the quintessence of physical beauty–at the beginning of the poem. On the other, he represents her as Psyche–the quintessence of soulful beauty–at the end of the poem. In Greek, psyche means soul. 语言风格As is typical with many of Poe's poems, the rhythm and rhyme scheme of \"To Helen\" is irregular but musical in sound. The poem consists of three stanzas of five lines each, where the end rhyme of the first stanza is ABABB, that of the second is ABABA, and that of the third is ABBAB. Poe uses soothing, positive words and rhythms to create a fitting tone and atmosphere for the poem. 文学流派Romanticism

创作意图Celebrate the nurturing power of women. Praise the physical beauty and excitement and purity of soul.

创作技巧Allusion, Assonance(谐音)，Consonance(尾韵), Repetition