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To Helen Figurative Language

Satisfactory Essays

There are many examples of imagery in “To Helen.” For instance, in the first stanza, the speaker uses a simile to compare Helen’s beauty to “those Nicean barks of yore,” which are ships, that brought the “weary way-worn wanderer” back to “his own native shore.” In the second stanza, the speaker uses a metaphor to express how he has roamed “On desperate seas” for a long time, which means his life felt futile and forlorn until he met Helen, and her “hyacinth hair, thy classic face” and her “Naiad airs” brought him home to “the glory that was Greece And the grandeur that was Rome.” Here, the speaker means Helen’s beauty and her attitude akin to a divine water-nymph brings him to a happier place in his life.

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