18 pages • 36 minutes read
Margaret AtwoodHelen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing” is a poem of 83 lines, divided into three stanzas of uneven length. It is written in free verse without end rhymes. Atwood writes the poem as a dramatic monologue from the point of view of a contemporized mythical figure, Helen of Troy, with an indirect address to a single individual at the end. The use of the free verse, rather than any classical form, helps show that this Helen is situated in the here and now, giving the poem a weight for the modern reader. The first stanza explains why Helen has taken her “job” (Line 5) even though others find it demeaning. The second explains what she does for her customers, despite their differing views of her purpose. It also explains how they objectify her in their fantasies. The third, explores how the clientele, even the single individual who seems special, hopes to “reduce” (Line 68) her to an object they can own or destroy. She resists. As Helen says, her speech is a “torch song” about unrequited love, of being misjudged—but it also offers a challenge: “You think I’m not a goddess? / Try me” (Lines 80-81). If the poem had been written in more formal language, this defiance, central to the voice of the speaker, might have been lost.
The Address of “you”
In the latter half of Atwood’s poem, the speaker begins to talk directly to one particular client, whom she addresses as “you” (Lines 62, 66, 80, 83). This technique does two things that significantly enhance the reader’s understanding. First, the person addressed is deliberately made to feel unique by Helen: “I don’t let on to everyone, but lean close” (Line 59-60). If her story is “believe[d . . .]" (Line 62), she assures the listener, "You can take me out to dinner” (Line 62). Further, the "you" (Line 66) here “would understand” (Line 66), and they are separated out from “the rest of them” (Line 67). This creates a sense of intimacy with someone who appears to be more sympathetic and civilized than the rest of the clients who are “ready to snap at [her] ankles” (Line 35). This is particularly potent because the address also seems to include the reader of the poem, who identifies with the second-person address. This requires a self-reflexive response in which the reader must ask if they are responding as the client does. More deeply, have they objectified Helen, judging her for her work or for beauty? Atwood uses the second person purposefully to make the reader reflect more deeply on their personal treatment of women.
Enjambment
Atwood’s use of enjambment, in which ideas run through multiple lines, is significant in “Helen of Troy Does Tabletop Dancing.” The technique causes the reader to linger on certain phrases before the meaning of the line is changed when it flows into the next one. This allows the poet to say multiple things in a single image or phrase. Several examples of this exist throughout the poem. In the first stanza, Helen notes that she has “to have the talent” (Line 14) and at first the reader may think that she means performing nude. Continuing, she adds, “to peddle a thing so nebulous / and without material form” (Lines 15-16). Rather than just being an exotic dancer using her assets, Helen makes it clear she barters in amorphous dreams. In the second section, this type of enjambment occurs when Helen notes how the men see “a chain-saw murder before it happens” (Line 28), preparing the reader for an image of violence. This is followed by a line specifying her body parts, before weaving into the next line in which she notes those body parts “are still connected” (Line 30). This shows, by its placement, that the clientele perceives Helen as simultaneously dismembered and whole. In the third stanza, enjambment is used significantly when Helen implies the audience wants to “wall me up alive,” (Line 71) again enacting violence. This then flows into “in my own body” (Line 72) to emphasize that Helen’s audience wants to eliminate her bodily autonomy. These significant uses of enjambment particularly emphasize the mental and physical dangers Helen faces as a contemporary stripper, and by extension, all women face in a world where the female body is objectified. These images would not have their double weight if the lines were broken in a different manner.
Related Titles
By Margaret Atwood
