Page 19 - GALIET ABSENCE AND Presence's Loom: Helen and Penelope IV

the braggart suitors, so as to postpone, and remain in her dominion free. Thus, she weaves to unweave, and unweaves to weave; yet she weaves, too, to dream her remembrance, to dream her nostalgia for a lost paradise, those cherished halls of beauty whose belongings filled with memories of yesterday shall fulfil her desolate hours when gone 3⁄4 so much so 3⁄4 that she shall trace her impressions back to them; and these, shall remain a perennial memory in every awakening and dreaming hour of her existence in those far-off hours of her absence, should these come to pass, beyond the beloved halls of Ithaca of her heart. These sincere memories and dreams are unfelt in Helen’s soul, though her heart feels “...sweet longing/after her husband of time before, and after her city, and parents,” by letting “a light tear”18 fall at times, and at others, she is worn with weeping. These tears appear, indeed, insincere. Although remorse-filled Helen self- loathes, and desires death, a very little part of hers assertively or morally acts, and much less lyrically sings. She does not possess Penelope’s soulful depths and her morals of duty to her husband, although she appears remorseful for abandoning Menelaus, and Sparta, and her Hermione,
18 Il., 3.139-142.
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