How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
could love indeed the maid,
only if she were laid,
white ash amid funereal cypresses. (16-18)
The final lines of the poem insist on the ridiculousness of the Greece people's derision. They'll only be able to love Helen when she's dead? What's up with that, Greeks? How perverse can you get? The extremeness of the last lines really brings home the excessiveness of the hate in the poem. By portraying the Greeks as absurdly hateful, it starts to feel as if the poem takes the stance that Helen is blameless. What do you think?