Analysis

Sarah Krise

Analysis

Annabel Lee was a poem published in 1849, by Edgar Alan Poe. He wrote the poem after mourning the death of his love, Annabel Lee. His one true love has died and he blames the angels in heaven for her death, he claims their love was stronger than those of age, even if they were children. He shifts his tone once throughout the poem going from sad grieving to angry grieving, but does keep the theme of expressing his love and grief throughout. Annabel Lee was the last poem written by Edgar Alan Poe.

The poem, Annabel Lee, starts off with “I was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea,” which makes it sound like it is starting off like a fairytale. Poe uses this to let the audience know this poem is about love and its’ eternity (1.1-2).

Throughout the poem Poe expresses the love they had. In the first stanza he stated “And this maiden she lived with no other thought; than to love and be loved by me.” He also uses more examples throughout the entire poem to make their love for each other be known such as, “But we loved with a love that was more than love-I and my Annabel Lee/ with a love that the winged seraphs of heaven; Coveted her and me.” He stated this in the second stanza. When he states “But we loved with a love that was more than a love,” he is letting them know that it wasn’t just love in his mind/ it was even much more than that (2.9-10). Which led him to believe that he had a love so great that even the angels in heaven envied it, therefore shows he did believe in heaven and that’s where the love of his life is now. However, he believes in heaven and the angels but he thinks they were envious of him and Annabel Lee therefore making him believe they are responsible for her death. He doesn’t state anything or anyone else to blame for her death other than the angels for being jealous (2.11-12).

In stanza three he actually proclaims her death, “A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling, my beautiful Annabel Lee”. He also says that her highborn kinsmen came and bore her from him; her parents came and took the body from him (3.15-18).

Poe’s tone changes from stanza three to stanza four. He starts to get angry and blames the angels for her death. He went from missing her and grieving sadly to be angry for what happened. He directly blames the angels this time saying they were the reason for her death. “That the wind came out of the cloud at night, chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.” He now directly uses the word killing, which also shows evidence of the tone change (4.21-26).

In stanza five he shifts back to sadly grieving his loss and expressing how strong their love was. He believes just because they were young doesn’t mean there love wasn’t stronger or wiser than the elderly. He also states that neither the angels in heaven nor the demons down under the sea can break their love (5. 27-34). They were true soul mates and nothing or no one can change that.

In the last stanza he writes, “For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams, of the beautiful Annabel Lee; and the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes, of the beautiful Annabel Lee.” Again he refers that he believes she is up in heaven, with the angels. He dreams and thinks of her day and night and always refers to her as his beautiful Annabel Lee, keeping his trend of showing how much they loved each other (6.35-36). In the last four lines of the poem Poe finally refers to Annabel as his bride, which he does not throughout the entire poem. In the first stanza he calls her his maiden but by the end of the poem he calls her his bride(6.37-40). It never stats whether they were actually married or not so this could also mean that he just believes they were in his head because they were young still. That didn’t matter though because of the love they had, he could have believed that they were going to marry in the future. He says earlier in the poem that her highborn kinsmen came to take her body, meaning that he didn’t have responsibility for it himself, which is also an indication of them not officially being married. Lastly he ends the poem with saying that he lays down at night beside her sepulchre by the sea. He still sleeps beside her every night even though she is gone (6.38-42). Even the last line he is still showing how much he loved Annabel Lee.

Poe wants his audience to believe him and Annabel Lee have a love that was so great it didn’t die when she passed away. He repeats that theme in each stanza to get his point across that just because they were young and not as wise as others; their love was stronger and so strong that it made the angels from heaven take her away. He has different ways of portraying how he feels about the angels and heaven. He blames them for her death and makes himself sound angry because of that in stanza four. However he still thinks of it as a good place also. He contradicts the angels and the demons; the good and bad, the angels being good. He also believes his Annabel Lee is in heaven which would have to mean to him that she is in a good place, heaven rather than hell. Then finally he ends with saying that even though she has passed away, he stills want to be with her and beside her every night to sleep, just like husband and wife.  

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. “Annabel Lee.” Family Friend Poems. Family Friend Poems, n.d. Web. 12 October 2013.