Sanders was born in Kansas City,Missouri. He dropped out of Missouri University in 1958 and hitchhiked to New York City’s Greenwich Village. He wrote his first major poem, Poem from Jail, on toilet paper in his cell after being jailed for protesting against nuclear proliferation in 1961.
In 1962, he founded the avant-garde journal, Fuck You: A Magazine of the Arts. Sanders opened the Peace Eye Bookstore (147 Avenue A in what was then the Lower East Side), which became a gathering place for bohemians and radicals.
Sanders graduated from New York University in 1964, with a degree in Classics. In 1965, he founded The Fugs with Tuli Kupferberg. The band broke up in 1969 and reformed in 1984.
In 1971, Sanders wrote The Family, a profile of the events leading up to the Tate-LaBianca murders. He obtained access to the Manson Family by posing as a "Satanic guru-maniac and dope-trapped psychopath."
As of 2006, Sanders lives in Woodstock, New York where he publishes the Woodstock Journal with his wife of over 36 years, the writer and painter Miriam R. Sanders. He also invents musical instruments including the Talking Tie, the microtonal Microlyre and the Lisa Lyre, a musical contraption involving light-activated switches and a reproduction of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
To Helen
Ed Sanders Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, wayworn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome.
Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand!
Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land!
The poem, "To Helen" by Ed Sanders, is a lyrical tribute to Helen of Troy, the mythical daughter of Zeus and Leda, and wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, whose abduction by Paris of Troy led to the Trojan War. The singer in the poem describes Helen's beauty as being like the ships of Nicea, or the ancient city of Nicaea, which was known for its shipyards and merchant fleets, sailing on a perfumed sea. Her beauty serves as a beacon to the wanderer, guiding him to his own native shore.
The singer continues to describe Helen's beauty and attributes, invoking images of the classical world - the hyacinth, a flower associated with Apollo, the god of the arts, and the Naiads, nymphs of springs and rivers. Helen's beauty brings the singer home, not just to physical land, but also to the symbolic glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome.
In the final stanza, the singer imagines Helen as a statue within a window-niche, holding an agate lamp, and invokes the name of Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul and the wife of Eros (Cupid), whose story was often associated with that of Helen. The "Holy Land" mentioned here may refer to both the classical world that the singer longs for and the spiritual realm that Psyche represents.
Line by Line Meaning
Helen, thy beauty is to me
The singer is comparing Helen's beauty to something that is very special to him.
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
He says that her beauty is like the boats from Nicea.
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The boats were gliding over the calm and fragrant waters.
The weary, wayworn wanderer bore
These boats carried the traveler who was tired and had been wandering for a long time.
To his own native shore.
These boats brought him back safely to his home.
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
The singer says that they had been traveling through the dangerous and rough seas.
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
He speaks about Helen's hair and timeless beauty.
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
He attributes the good feeling of being home to her mystical presence.
To the glory that was Greece
He says that her presence reminds him of the greatness of ancient Greece.
And the grandeur that was Rome.
He is reminded of imperial Rome too.
Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
He spots her in the niche by the window.
How statue-like I see thee stand,
He finds her motionless like a statue.
The agate lamp within thy hand!
She is holding an agate lamp in her hand.
Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
He is calling her 'Psyche,' whose legends were popular in Greece & Rom.
Are Holy Land!
He admires her as he would a goddess in a holy land.
Contributed by Tristan K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@DWor-
Oh, it's a song! Cool. I did that once on guitar for "Alone". ^_^