Helen of Troy and Other Poems

Sara Teasdale1911

Rating 2.0
Chapters
40

Tags

Literature Foreign Literature Love and DeathSonnetsLyric PoetryPoetry CollectionClassical MythologyTroyAmerican LiteratureFemale Perspective

Summary

Helen of Troy and Other Poems is the second collection by the American lyric poet Sara Teasdale (1884–1933), published in New York in 1911 and an important work before she won the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry with Love Songs. The book has three parts. The first consists of first-person dramatic monologues on female figures from myth and literature, including the long title poem "Helen of Troy," as well as "Beatrice," "Sappho," "Guinevere," "Marianna Alcoforado" and "Erinna." In "Helen of Troy," the poet has Helen, as Troy burns, speak from the city wall: she admits she is "the beauty all desired," yet questions why the gods made her bear the disasters her beauty brings—the poem is mournful yet edged. The second part is a group of "Love Songs," short, melodious lyrics on the awakening of love, waiting, loss and the changing seasons, such as "Song," "The Rose and the Bee," "The Four Winds," "Valse," and "Snow Song." The third part, "Sonnets and Lyrics," includes "Spring," "The Birth of the Soul," "Love and Death," poems in memory of Keats and Swinburne, and the "City Vignettes" group on New York's Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum and Coney Island. Teasdale's style is spare and clear, strictly metered and beautifully imaged, and she is regarded as a representative of the American romantic lyric tradition. This edition is a public-domain edition of the original English text, suited to experiencing its sound and rhythm in the original.

Editor's review

在英语诗歌史上，莎拉·蒂斯黛尔常被归入“抒情传统的晚霞”：她的诗句表面清澈见底，实际上每首都像一潭静水，底下压着失落与孤独。《特洛伊的海伦及其他诗》是她二十七岁时的第二本诗集，远早于让她拿到普利策奖的《恋歌》，却已经能看出两点的雏形：一是格律的自觉，四行体、十四行、三行体、圆舞体信手拈来，音步干净、韵脚妥帖，读出声来本身就是享受；二是视角的现代性，她不写英雄史诗，而是把海伦、萨福、圭尼维尔这些被男性诗篇反复讲述的女人推到台前，让她们用自己的声音说出代价与不甘——那句“我将活下去，再一次征服希腊”，既像叹息，也像宣言。 整本集子分为人物独白、“恋歌”和“十四行诗与抒情诗”三辑，篇幅不长，却题材宽广：既有希腊神话与亚瑟王传奇，也有纽约中央公园、大都会博物馆、科尼岛这类都市风物，古典与日常在她笔下并未割裂。对中文读者而言，这本书篇幅短小、语言明净，是进入美国浪漫抒情诗歌的一个温和入口；对照中文译本来读原文，更能体会她“看似简单、实则余音不绝”的写法。需要说明的是，如果你要的是近年那部把海伦写成1990年代田纳西主妇的同名新诗集，那是另一位当代诗人的作品，与本版并非一书。

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Reading tips

  1. 先读同题长诗《特洛伊的海伦》，把握全书的女性声音，再回头读其他人物独白。
  2. 诗短且多押韵，建议朗读出声，感受蒂斯黛尔的节奏与韵脚。
  3. 可按三辑顺序阅读；也可按主题跳读，比如集中读“恋歌”组诗。
  4. 读完《十四行诗与抒情诗》中凭吊济慈、斯温伯恩的几首，可对照相关诗人的作品。
  5. 配合一本中文译本对照阅读，遇到难懂的典故（如莱达、天鹅、厄里斯）随手查阅。

Contents

  1. Helen of Troy
  2. Beatrice
  3. Sappho
  4. Marianna Alcoforado
  5. Guinevere
  6. Elena
  7. Love Songs: Song
  8. Love Songs: The Rose and the Bee
  9. Love Songs: The Singer
  10. Love Songs: The Wild Aster
  11. Love Songs: When Love Is Gone
  12. Love Songs: The Traveler
  13. Love Songs: The Princess in the Tower
  14. Love Songs: When Love Is Born
  15. Love Songs: The Shrine
  16. Love Songs: The Blind
  17. Love Songs: Love Me
  18. Love Songs: A Song for Colin
  19. Love Songs: The Four Winds
  20. Love Songs: Roundelay
  21. Love Songs: Dew
  22. Love Songs: The Maiden
  23. Love Songs: "I Love You"
  24. Love Songs: But Not for Me
  25. Love Songs: Secret Love
  26. Love Songs: A Song of Snow
  27. Love Songs: Youth and the Pilgrim
  28. Love Songs: The Wanderer
  29. Love Songs: I Would Live in Your Love
  30. Love Songs: May
  31. Love Songs: A Little Poem
  32. Love Songs: Lighter Than Cloud, Than Wind
  33. Love Songs: Buried Love
  34. Love Songs: Song (II)
  35. Love Songs: Pierrot
  36. Love Songs: Night Song
  37. Love Songs: Autumn Love
  38. Love Songs: The Kiss
  39. Love Songs: November
  40. Love Songs: The Princess's Song

FAQ

这本书是哪一年出版的？作者是谁？ 《特洛伊的海伦及其他诗》是莎拉·蒂斯黛尔（Sara Teasdale，1884—1933）的第二部诗集，1911年在纽约首次出版。她后来凭1917年的《恋歌》获得1918年普利策诗歌奖。
这本书和《特洛伊的海伦，1993年：诗歌》是同一本吗？ 不是。后者是另一位当代诗人的英文诗集，把海伦改写为1990年代田纳西州的主妇，2025年由Scribner出版。本词条指的是蒂斯黛尔1911年的经典诗集，二者书名相近、内容与作者均不同。
全书大约多长？包含多少首诗？ 公版整理的英文版本篇幅不大，约六十首左右，分为人物独白、“恋歌”、十四行诗与抒情诗三辑，一两个晚上即可通读一遍。
需要先了解希腊神话才能读吗？ 不必系统学习。同题诗讲特洛伊焚城时海伦的自述，了解“帕里斯带走海伦引发特洛伊战争”这一背景即可；其他诗多写爱情与自然，无须典故也能读懂。
现在还能买到这本书吗？ 该书已进入公有领域，可在古登堡计划等网站免费阅读英文原文，也有Mint Editions等出版社的整理本。国内目前未见通行的中文全译本，购书前请核对出版社与ISBN。

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About the author

Sara Teasdale Author

Sara Teasdale was an American lyric poet, born in the late nineteenth century and died in the 1930s. Because public information is limited, the details of her life are difficult to describe in full, yet her poetry has had a certain influence in English-language literature. The work held in this collection is Helen of Troy and Other Poems, a volume that reflects the character of her early writing. Teasdale is known for her lyric gift: her language is concise and her verse musical, often drawing on classical myth, love, and nature, with a delicate and restrained emotional tone. She conveys inner feeling through simple imagery, and her work carries a lingering Romantic quality while showing the restraint and refinement of modern lyric poetry. Her poems hold a place in twentieth-century American poetry and are still included in anthologies and read with pleasure today.