The Poetry
During VD1 Damon quotes to Elena the first few lines of a poem entitled To Helen. The poem, written by Edgar Allen Poe was written in 1831. There are actually two To Helen poems, the first which is the version that Damon quoted was written for Mrs. Craig Stith Stannard. In a later poem, also titled To Helen, was addressed to Sarah Helen Whitman. Helen, thy beauty is to meLike those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfum'd sea,
The weary way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore. On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the beauty of fair Greece,
And the grandeur of old Rome. Lo! in that little window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand!
The folded scroll within thy hand —
A Psyche from the regions which
Are Holy land !