PoeSeptember 19, 1985Copyright © 1997 Property of Deborah K. Fletcher. All rights reserved.
According to the context of the poems "Sonnet - To Science" and "To Helen," Edgar Allan Poe tended to equate beauty with the classically mythic beauty of Greece and Rome. In "To Helen" Poe has written, "... Thy Naiad airs have brought me home To the glory that was Greece, And the grandeur that was Rome." In Greek mythology, the Naiads were beautiful water nymphs, similar to the houris of Moslem Paradise. Earlier in the same work, Poe stated that beauty is in the mythic Greece by writing, "Helen, thy beauty is to me Like those Nicean barks of yore,...." "Nicean" seems to refer to the ships used by Ulysses, or Odysseus, in the ancient land. Poe seems also to have discussed beauty by writing about those things which are typically symbolic of a lack of beauty. When, in "Sonnet - To Science," he wrote, "... Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?" he wrote of a classical, though not mythic, symbol of ugliness. In alluding to ugliness, Poe stressed more vividly the beauty of such things as "... treasure in the jeweled skies,..." "... shelter in some happier star...," and "... the summer dream beneath the tamarind tree...." Edgar Allan Poe seems to have taken pleasure not only in references to classic beauty, but also in classically beautiful references. "... Hast thou not torn the Naid from her flood, The Elfin from the green grass, and from me The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?" is an example from "Sonnet - To Science" of a reference to classic beauty that is also a classically beautiful reference. Naiads from the ancient myths of the Mediterranean isles and Elfin from the forests of Old England bring to mind deep, mysterious forests, magically intertwined with glowing olive groves and emerald hills. The entire scene seems to be surrounded by a clear, blue sea, and to be lit with the softly warm sunlight of the British Isles. Through his use of classical references, Edgar Allan Poe has shown his love of nature's beauty. Many of the ancient Greek and Roman myths center around nature, and Poe's use of the ancient myths was extensive. Please View and Sign My Guestbook © 1998-2000 Debbie Fletcher, joiya@tcia.net
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