{
 "id": "oscar-wilde/the-new-helen",
 "title": "The New Helen",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Oscar Wilde",
 "poet_slug": "oscar-wilde",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 21,
 "container": "Rosa Mystica",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1881,
  "venue": "Poems (1881)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1057"
  ]
 },
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  "repo": "standardebooks/oscar-wilde_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1338",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lotus_Leaves",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wasted_Days_(from_a_Picture_Painted_by_Miss_V._T.)",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102953450",
   "https://archive.org/details/ravennarecitedin00wildrich",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010824214",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006061074",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100217578",
   "https://archive.org/details/cu31924013571082",
   "https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=pilot18770721-01.2.24"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-19"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 100,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Where hast thou been since round the walls of Troy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sons of God fought in that great emprise?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Why dost thou walk our common earth again?",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Hast thou forgotten that impassioned boy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His purple galley, and his Tyrian men,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And treacherous Aphrodite’s mocking eyes?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For surely it was thou, who, like a star",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hung in the silver silence of the night,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Didst lure the Old World’s chivalry and might",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the clamorous crimson waves of war!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or didst thou rule the fire-laden moon?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In amorous Sidon was thy temple built",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Over the light and laughter of the sea",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where, behind lattice scarlet-wrought and gilt,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some brown-limbed girl did weave thee tapestry,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "All through the waste and wearied hours of noon;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till her wan cheek with flame of passion burned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she rose up the sea-washed lips to kiss",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of some glad Cyprian sailor, safe returned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Calpé and the cliffs of Herakles!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No! thou art Helen, and none other one!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It was for thee that young Sarpedôn died,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And Memnôn’s manhood was untimely spent;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "It was for thee gold-crested Hector tried",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With Thetis’ child that evil race to run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the last year of thy beleaguerment;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Ay! even now the glory of thy fame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Burns in those fields of trampled asphodel,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the high lords whom Ilion knew so well",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Clash ghostly shields, and call upon thy name.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where hast thou been? in that enchanted land",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose slumbering vales forlorn Calypso knew,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where never mower rose at break of day",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "But all unswathed the trammelling grasses grew,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the sad shepherd saw the tall corn stand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till summer’s red had changed to withered grey?",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Didst thou lie there by some Lethaean stream",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deep brooding on thine ancient memory,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The crash of broken spears, the fiery gleam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From shivered helm, the Grecian battle-cry?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nay, thou wert hidden in that hollow hill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With one who is forgotten utterly,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That discrowned Queen men call the Erycine;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Hidden away that never mightst thou see",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The face of Her, before whose mouldering shrine",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "To-day at Rome the silent nations kneel;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who gat from Love no joyous gladdening,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But only Love’s intolerable pain,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Only a sword to pierce her heart in twain,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Only the bitterness of child-bearing.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The lotus-leaves which heal the wounds of Death",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lie in thy hand; O, be thou kind to me,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While yet I know the summer of my days;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "For hardly can my tremulous lips draw breath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To fill the silver trumpet with thy praise,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "So bowed am I before thy mystery;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So bowed and broken on Love’s terrible wheel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That I have lost all hope and heart to sing,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet care I not what ruin time may bring",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If in thy temple thou wilt let me kneel.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Alas, alas, thou wilt not tarry here,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, like that bird, the servant of the sun,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who flies before the north wind and the night,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "So wilt thou fly our evil land and drear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Back to the tower of thine old delight,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And the red lips of young Euphorion;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor shall I ever see thy face again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in this poisonous garden-close must stay,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Crowning my brows with the thorn-crown of pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till all my loveless life shall pass away.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O Helen! Helen! Helen! yet a while,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet for a little while, O, tarry here,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the dawn cometh and the shadows flee!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "For in the gladsome sunlight of thy smile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of heaven or hell I have no thought or fear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Seeing I know no other god but thee:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "No other god save him, before whose feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In nets of gold the tired planets move,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The incarnate spirit of spiritual love",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who in thy body holds his joyous seat.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou wert not born as common women are!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, girt with silver splendour of the foam,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Didst from the depths of sapphire seas arise!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And at thy coming some immortal star,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bearded with flame, blazed in the Eastern skies,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And waked the shepherds on thine island-home.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou shalt not die: no asps of Egypt creep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Close at thy heels to taint the delicate air;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No sullen-blooming poppies stain thy hair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Those scarlet heralds of eternal sleep.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lily of love, pure and inviolate!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tower of ivory! red rose of fire!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou hast come down our darkness to illume:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "For we, close-caught in the wide nets of Fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wearied with waiting for the World’s Desire,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Aimlessly wandered in the House of gloom,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Aimlessly sought some slumberous anodyne",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For wasted lives, for lingering wretchedness,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till we beheld thy re-arisen shrine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the white glory of thy loveliness.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}