Helen

Discuss the poem Helen with the community...

https://www.poetry.com/poem/168113/helen

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  Vixility

  Mythic, Robin! Mythic!
  
  The poem opens up with poor Helen caught in the center of a patriarchal machine (the male figures) who used her beauty as a catalyst to ignite a brutal war—a war that she wants nothing to do with, as we can hear her desperately cry:
  
  “I am the face that launched a thousand ships … I cannot account for all the lives lost…”
  
  I like how you then subtly introduced the Muse (whom mortal Helen seems to have embodied) and a diatribe is set forth warning ‘all of the men who continue to use and abuse their special muse’ (in this case Helen) that they are at the same time dishonoring that which is Eternal in them.
  
  And then (and I believe it’s still the Muse speaking) the poem ends with the powerful:
  
  “My name is Helen.”
  
  Lovely work Robin, lovely work. more »

  LikeReply7 months ago