Name: Roxy Shane R.

Tan Date: November 7, 2022

Teacher: Dianne Malihan Year & Section: 11 STEM ENG’G

Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

 In what year was the text written and published?

- Edgar Allan Poe's lyric poem “Annabel Lee” was written on 1849. On the same year, it was
published in the New York Tribune on October 9, 1849, two days after his death.

 Is there anything significant that happened in the author’s life during this time? What were
the circumstances that happened to the author before the writing of the text?
- Poe's poem “Annabel Lee” depicts his sadness; his difficulties in life may have motivated him
to create “Annabel Lee” as a poem about a lost lover. Poe's life is said to have been affected
by the tragedies he experienced as a result of the deaths of the ladies in his life. “Annabel Lee”
was affected by Edgar Allan Poe's childhood loss of his mother, the separation of his ex-
fiancée, and the death of his wife.

 Were there several drafts of the text? What can you say about the changes that the author
made? What aspect do you think the author struggled with during the revision? What is the
effect of the revisions to the published text?
- There have been manuscripts which are all fair-copy drafts, which means the text is clear and
unaltered. Every single one of them has Poe's name in the byline, indicating that he wanted
them to be published. Poe promised Annie Richmond in a letter he sent her on or around May
5, 1849, that he would send her a copy of "Annabel Lee" soon, but it doesn't seem like he
followed through on that promise in the few months that passed before his death in Baltimore.
Due to this, it is challenging to draw conclusions about Poe's final preferences in a specific
draft based just on the date it was given to someone. It is conceivable that he chose the best
draft to send to Griswold if he had access to all of the drafts at once.

 Are the characters and situations in the text that could be representative of or are similar to
the ones in the author’s life?
- The poem is about the death of Annabel Lee, a lovely young woman. Poe alleges in the poem
that she died because "The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, went envying her and me."
The jealous angels chilled Annabel by bringing up a wind out of the cloud at night. The identity
of Annabel Lee in Edgar Allan Poe's lyric poem is unknown. She was not a real person named
Annabel Lee, but may have been Poe's wife, Virginia Clement Poe, who died about two years
before the poem was written.

 How will knowing about the author’s life amplify your appreciation of the work?
- I have made an effort to comprehend the author's life in order to grasp the ideals, characters,
or topics of the poetry. Poe's life was highly unhappy, which contributed to the idea for his
gloomy tales. At birth, he was separated from his parents and siblings, and he later saw the
deaths of the other members of his family. These troubling incidents in his life inspired his
distinctive and unsettling literary style, for which he is most known. The more I have learned
about the author, the clearer the poem's main ideas became to me which also helped me value
his work.