On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs, have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome.

In these lines, Edgar Allan Poe draws upon classical imagery to convey a sense of longing and idealization. The poem's speaker, likening Helen's beauty to the "Nicean barks of yore," sees her as a guiding force leading him back to a realm of cultural and aesthetic perfection. "Desperate seas" suggest the turmoil that Poe endured in his own life, a metaphor for his personal struggles and feelings of alienation. Yet, Helen's "hyacinth hair" and "classic face" are symbols of hope and restoration, offering the speaker a return to a time and place of great artistic achievement. By invoking "the glory that was Greece" and "the grandeur that was Rome," Poe situates Helen within a context of timeless beauty and intellectual brilliance, implying that her presence provides solace and inspiration amidst the chaos of his reality. This stanza is a testament to the power of idealized love to transcend the difficulties of life and connect one with enduring legacies of human achievement.