Helen, thy beauty is to me

Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicéan 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!

by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Herman Behr (1847-) , "Helen", published 1933. [high voice and piano]
by James Philip Dunn (1884-1936) , "To Helen", published 1916. [voice and piano]
by John Edmunds (1913-1986) , "Helen" [baritone and piano]
by Cecil Forsyth (1870-1941) , "To Helen", published 1927. [TTBB part song a cappella]
by Elliott Griffis (1893-1967) , "To Helen", published 1946 [medium voice and piano], from Songs from Poe
by John Habash , "To Helen", published 1964.
by Joseph Kaufer (1909-) , "To Helen", published 1951, from Dover Beach and Other Songs
by Arthur Reginald Little , "Helen" [voice and piano]
by Charles Martin Tornov Loeffler (1861-1935) , "To Helen", op. 15 (Four Poems) no. 3, published 1906. [voice and piano]
by Walter Mourant (1910-) , "To Helen" [medium voice and piano]
by Harry Edward Piggott , "To Helen", published 1953. [two-part song with piano]
by Bertram Shapleigh (1871-1940) , "Helen, thy beauty is to me", op. 41 (Fünf Lieder) no. 1, published 1901 [voice and piano], note: also set in German
by Leo Smith (1881-1952) , "To Helen", published 1914 [voice and piano], from Four Songs
by Oscar George Theodore Sonneck (1873-1928) , "To Helen", op. 16 (Four Poems by Edgar Allan Poe) no. 1, published 1917. [baritone and piano]
by Warren Storey-Smith (1855-1971) , "To Helen", published 1917. [voice and piano]
by Cyril V. Taylor (1907-) , "To Helen", published 1930. [medium voice and piano]
by Myra Kinney Van Höveln-Carpé , "Thy naiad airs", op. 54b, published 1922. [voice and piano]

by Bertram Shapleigh (1871-1940) , "Helen, deiner Schönheit macht", op. 41 (Fünf Lieder) no. 1, published 1901 [voice and piano], note: also set in English

Date added to the website: 2005-10-12.

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