The Nicean What?

Your humble host very much enjoyed the Edgar Allen Poe we looked at toward the beginning of the month, with its classical references dense with meaning. Implication and reference are crucial to the poetic mindset, because it allows a lot to be said with a few carefully assembled words. It does, however, require some knowing in order to make any sense of it, when they are literary or historical references.

The poem below, another and even shorter piece by Poe, has all kinds of references to Greek/Roman mythology. The essential meaning of returning home to one’s love is universal enough, but a few bits and pieces will make it more clear to those unfamiliar with the myths.

Only a few, I promise. You can discuss others in the comments, if you wish.

So what’s a Nicean bark? Not a woof from some obscure dog breed, it turns out. I usually see it spelled “barque,” but either way, it’s a kind of small sailing ship.

As the story goes, Dionysos (or Bacchus, depending on the nationality of the storyteller, in either case a welcome guest at the Garden) grew up on the shore of the wonderful island, Nysa – thus, Nicean (as differentiated from Nicene, which means from the city of Nicaea). It’s described as being surrounded by a “perfumed sea.”

After his many travels, Dionysos was brought home by ships sent from his home. Thus, the first stanza.

To Helen

Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o’er a perfumed sea,
The weary, wayworn 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!

 

(Edgar Allen Poe)

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