"All Greece hates / the still eyes in the white face"
The poem begins with these lines, the speaker immediately providing clues about the tensions and issues at stake in the poem. The word "all" and the use of present tense, combined with the title of "Helen," shows the reader that although ancient Greek mythology grounds the poem, something much larger and more encompassing percolates thematically. Also, the collective psyche of the Greek people, and the effects of ancient myth on their national identity, contains much more history and nuance than the word "hate" could describe. Thus, the reader immediately ascertains that some kind of contentious argument underlies the literal meaning of the words. On a literal level, if the poem is titled "Helen" and Greece hates "the still eyes in the white face," it seems likely that the speaker is referring to the concept of the late Helen, and perhaps her likeness in a statue—evidenced by the "still" eyes and "white" face, which could be stone. In these first two lines, the reader still has not determined why Greece hates this figure, although the word hate hovers with its strange, and perhaps unreasonable, intensity.
"remembering past enchantments / and past ills."
Easily overlooked as a simple descriptive phrase or poetic afterthought, these lines are crucial in their humanizing of Helen, who up until the second stanza was a concept, memory, or statue representing a mythical figure. However, the fact that her face changes as she recalls the magical and traumatic parts of her life, shows that she was once very human, at least in the ancient imagination. Presumably, Helen represents the ways in which culture dehumanizes, dissects, and objectifies women—often either idolizing and idealizing them like a Virgin Mary figure, or vilifying them. Given the mythical story of Helen's life, perhaps the human side of her in this poem is a metaphor for all women; specifically, women who have endured the pressures of culture and the violence of misogyny, and borne the expectations of men on their shoulders. Notably, H.D.'s interest in psychoanalysis suggests that there is also something going on beneath the more evident meaning of this line's mention of the "past," memory, and remembering. The speaker gestures to the way events that have already occurred have profound and lasting effects on current emotions and bodily experience. In psychoanalysis, this is described as trauma or latent memories in the unconscious affecting conscious life. This phenomenon occurs in the collision of conscious thought and the active unconscious mind—the past driving the present.
"the beauty of cool feet / and slenderest knees,"
These lines are another example of a descriptive phrase that could be overlooked. However, each word resonates with H.D.'s overall theme in "Helen"—a feminist examination of the physical and the ideological, culture and the psyche. The phrase "the beauty of cool feet" illustrates Helen's idealized, and perhaps unusual, beauty, given that feet and their coolness are not typically attractive features of femininity. The line could also allude to the fact that the memory and myth of Helen is live and active in the mind, while also resting coolly in her stone form and in the epochs of ancient Greece. In other words, Helen has a lasting power that is both irresistible and infuriating in the Greek imagination. Her "slenderest knees" also depict a kind of elegance generally not lauded or discussed. These lines, in their oddness, and in the obsessive closeness of their hatred, illuminate the ambivalent and paradoxical desire-hate that Helen receives. This mix of rancor and longing symbolizes a ubiquitous affective dilemma in culture that most women must endure. Furthermore, throughout the long history of objectification, the culture around desire, sexuality, and romance has included the language of "winning," "owning," or "getting" women as if they are prizes. As H.D. has illustrated, this misogynistic attitude results in extreme envy, rage, and resentment toward women who cannot be controlled or possessed.
