“Helen” - H.D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886-1961)

All Greece hates  the still eyes in the white face,    the lustre as of olives    where she stands,    and the white hands.  All Greece reviles    the wan face when she smiles,    hating it deeper still    when it grows wan and white,    remembering past enchantments    and past ills.  Greece sees unmoved,    God’s daughter, born of love,    the beauty of cool feet    and slenderest knees,    could love indeed the maid,    only if she were laid,    white ash amid funereal cypresses.

Helen on the Walls of Troy, Frederic Leighton, 1865