Helen in Egypt: Poetry (New Directions Paperbook) Read online

  the threat of the Labyrinth,

  the Sphinx is seen,

  the Beast is slain

  and the Phoenix-nest

  reveals the innermost

  key or the clue to the rest

  of the mystery;

  there is no before and no after,

  there is one finite moment

  that no infinite joy can disperse

  or thought of past happiness

  tempt from or dissipate;

  now I know the best and the worst;

  the seasons revolve around

  a pause in the infinite rhythm

  of the heart and of heaven.

  Eidolon

  But what could Paris know of the sea,

  its beat and long reverberation,

  its booming and delicate echo,

  its ripple that spells a charm

  on the sand, the rock-lichen,

  the sea-moss, the sand,

  and again and again, the sand;

  what does Paris know of the hill and hollow

  of billows, the sea-road?

  what could he know of the ships

  from his Idaean home,

  the crash and spray of the foam,

  the wind, the shoal, the broken shale,

  the infinite loneliness

  when one is never alone?

  only Achilles could break his heart

  and the world for a token,

  a memory forgotten.

  Copyright © 1961 by Norman Holmes Pearson

  Introduction copyright © 1961 by Horace Gregory

  All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

  First published by Grove Press in 1961

  Published clothbound and as New Directions Paperbook 380 in 1974

  Published simultaneously in Canada by Penguin Books Canada Limited

  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

  Doolittle, Hilda, 1886–1961.

  Helen in Egypt.

  (A New Directions Book)

  Poem.

  1. Helen of Troy—Poetry. I. H. D. II. D., H.

  III. Title.

  PS3507.O726H37 1974 811’.5’2 74–8563

  ISBN 978-0-811-22258-7 (e-book)

  New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin

  by New Directions Publishing Corporation

  80 Eighth Avenue, New York 10011