Helen of Troy: two poems

When reading the poems "To Helen" by Edgar Allen Poe and "Helen" by Hilda Doolittle and knowing nothing about Helen of Troy, one would be thoroughly confused about her character. Acclaimed in the ancient world for her beauty, Helen was the wife of the Greek king Menelaus and her seizure by Paris was the cause of the Trojan War. The two poems about Helen are so different in nature in that they are worth exploring …

…the two writers both paint a very different picture of the infamous Helen. In one she is put on a pedestal; in the other she is extensively belittled. The poets, writing their poems in very different styles, set up a differing rhyme structure. The poems effectively convey their different messages through different imagery and diction. Being such powerful pieces of work, it would be burdensome for anyone to choose sides between these two opposing poems.