<P> In referring to Helen, Poe is alluding to Helen of Troy who is considered to be the most beautiful woman who ever lived--according to the goddess Venus in the myth referred to as The Judgement of Paris . Helen of Troy was "the face that launched a thousand ships" such as the "Nicean barks" of the poem . Poe also refers to Helen as Psyche, a beautiful princess who became the lover of Cupid . Psyche represented the soul to ancient Greeks, and Poe is comparing Helen to the very soul of "regions which are Holy Land" meaning the soul of Greece from which so much of our ideals of beauty, democracy and learning sprang forth . In ancient Greek, the name Helen literally means "sunlight; bright as the dawn". Her "agate lamp" may refer to the moment when Psyche discovered the true identity of Cupid by shining a lamp on him at night; it also refers to the enlightened knowledge of the ancient world, which still influences Western culture today . Guy Davenport has asserted that Poe is "normally far more exact that he is given credit for": </P> <P> Sappho, whom Poe is imitating, had compared a woman's beauty to a fleet of ships . Byron had previously written lines that Poe outbyrons Byron With, in "the glory that was Greece / And the grandeur that was Rome ." But how is Helen also Psyche; who is the wanderer coming home? Scholars are not sure . In fact, the poem is not easy to defend against the strictures of critics . We can point out that Nicaean is not, as has been charged, a pretty bit of gibberish, but the adjective for the City of Nice, where a major shipworks was: Marc Antony's fleet was built there . We can defend perfumed sea, which has been called silly, by noting that classical ships never left sight of land, and could smell orchards on shore, that perfumed oil was an extensive industry in classical times and that ships laden with it would smell better than your shipload of sheep . </P> <P> Helen, thy beauty is to me Like 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! </P> <P> Helen, thy beauty is to me Like those Nicean barks of yore That gently, o'er a perfumed 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 glory that was Greece, And the grandeur that was Rome . Lo, in yon brilliant window - niche How statue - like I see thee stand, The agate lamp within thy hand, Ah! Psyche, from the regions which Are Holy Land! </P>

Thy beauty is to me like those nicean barks of yore