how did lliad impress helen
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It was the Iliad that made Greece my paradise. I was familiar with the
story of Troy before I read it in the original, and consequently I had
little difficulty in making the Greek words surrender their treasures
after I had passed the borderland of grammar. Great poetry, whether
written in Greek or in English, needs no other interpreter than a
responsive heart. Would that the host of those who make the great works
of the poets odious by their analysis, impositions and laborious
comments might learn this simple truth! It is not necessary that one
should be able to define every word and give it its principal parts and
its grammatical position in the sentence in order to understand and
appreciate a fine poem. I know my learned professors have found greater
riches in the Iliad than I shall ever find; but I am not avaricious. I
am content that others should be wiser than I. But with all their wide
and comprehensive knowledge, they cannot measure their enjoyment of that
splendid epic, nor can I. When I read the finest passages of the Iliad,
I am conscious of a soul-sense that lifts me above the narrow, cramping
circumstances of my life. My physical limitations are forgotten--my
world lies upward, the length and the breadth and the sweep of the
heavens are mine!
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Helen's admiration for Virgil's Aeneid was not so great but it was none the less real. She had read it as much as possible without the help of notes or dictionary and she always liked to translate the episodes that pleased her especially. The word-painting of Virgil was wonderful sometimes but in her opinion, the gods and men moved through scenes of passion, strife, pity and love like graceful figures in an Elizabethan mask. The characters in Iliad gave three leaps and went on singing so if Virgil was serene and lovely like a marble Apollo in moonlight then Homer was a beautiful, animated youth in full sunlight with wind in his hair. Although Iliad was quite tough to read and not altogether pleasant, yet she felt that way about Homer's work.
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