Barn Burning by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe's verse, "To Helen", was motivated by Sarah Helen Whitman, the attractive juvenile mother of one of Poe's boyhood associates - "the first solely perfect love of my soul," according to the poet. Or was his poetic inspiration Jane Stith Stanard, as many Poe scholars argue? It makes little difference. Since the verse lives in two versions with secondary alterations, it was evidently first occasioned by his infatuation with Mrs. Stanard and then modified for Mrs. Whitman. The woman of the name is contrasted to Helen of Troy, possessor of "the face that commenced ...