Edgar

Edgar Allen Poe wrote two different poems titled “To Helen”; the first was in 1831 (later revised in 1845) and the second was written in 1848. The first “Helen” poem was in homage to the mother of a childhood friend and celebrated the beauty and nurturing power of women. It reads in part: “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.” Poe’s second Helen poem was written for a love interest of his named Sarah Helen Whitman and recounts the first time he laid eyes on her strolling under the moonlight. In the poem the garden roses where she walked smiled and were “enchanted by thee, and by the poetry by thy presence” When the moon finally “sank from sight” Poe goes on about Helen’s eyes: “Only thine eyes remained; / They would not go – they never yet have gone; / Lighting my lonely pathway home that night, / They have not left me (as my hopes have) since; / They follow me- they lead me through the years.”

Edgar is the elder, legitimate son of Gloucester in Shakespeare’s great tragedy, King Lear, written between 1603 and 1606. He portrays a multitude of aspects as his story unfolds, and gives Lear a run for his money in the tragedy department. As a trusting brother, he is betrayed by Edmund, who convinces their father that Edgar is planning to usurp his power. Then he is wrongly disinherited and banished by his father without being given a chance to remonstrate. He then assumes the guise of a madman, of the lowest strata of society. Even so, after Gloucester has himself been betrayed by Edmund, and blinded, Edgar comes to his assistance, but still in disguise. He deflects Gloucester’s attempted suicide, and also saves him from an attempted murder. He fatally wounds his evil brother. When he finally does reveal himself to his father, the old man dies of shock and joy. All in a day’s work for our hero. As all around him die, including Lear and his three daughters, Edgar attains the crown (at least in the Folio version). Thus is virtue rewarded.