ANNABEL LEE

EDGAR ALLAN POE

(1809 – 1849)
EDGAR ALLAN POE
(1809 – 1849)
• On January 19, 1809, Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston,
Massachusetts. Poe’s father and mother, both professional actors,
died before the poet was three years old, and John and Frances
Allan raised him as a foster child in Richmond, Virginia.

• John Allan, a prosperous tobacco exporter, sent Poe to the best

boarding schools and later to the University of Virginia, where Poe
excelled academically.

• After less than one year of school, however, he was forced to leave
the university when Allan refused to pay Poe’s gambling debts.
EDGAR ALLAN POE

• Poe returned briefly to Richmond, but his relationship with Allan deteriorated. In 1827, he
moved to Boston and enlisted in the United States Army. His first collection of
poems, Tamerlane, and Other Poems, was published that year.

• In 1829, he published a second collection entitled Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems.
Neither volume received significant critical or public attention.

• Following his Army service, Poe was admitted to the United States Military Academy, but he
was again forced to leave for lack of financial support. He then moved into the home of his
aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia in Baltimore, Maryland.
• Poe began to sell short stories to magazines at around this time, and, in 1835, he
became the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, where he moved
with his aunt and cousin Virginia.
• In 1836, he married Virginia, who was fourteen years old at the time. Over the next
ten years, Poe would edit a number of literary journals including the
Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and Graham’s Magazine in Philadelphia and
the Broadway Journal in New York City. It was during these years that he established
himself as a poet, a short story writer, and an editor. He published some of his best-
known stories and poems, including “The Fall of the House of Usher," “The Tell-Tale
Heart," “The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and “The Raven.”
• After Virginia’s death from tuberculosis in 1847, Poe’s lifelong struggle with
depression and alcoholism worsened. He returned briefly to Richmond in 1849 and
then set out for an editing job in Philadelphia. For unknown reasons, he stopped in
Baltimore. On October 3, 1849, he was found in a state of semi-consciousness. Poe
died four days later of “acute congestion of the brain.”
EDGAR ALLAN POE
Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most renowned writers. His short stories and poetry have
infiltrated the canon of literature since he first began writing. At the age of only thirteen, he
had written enough short stories to publish a book. He did not publish until later on in life,
however.

He only lived to be forty years old, but in his short lifetime, he wrote some of the most famous
literature. Before becoming a famous and known writer, Poe experienced a lifetime of
misfortune. It began when his parents died. He was left an orphan. The man who took him in
sent him to boarding school and left nothing to him when he died.
EDGAR ALLAN POE
• There is substantial evidence to suggest that this poem was written for Poe’s wife, Virginia
Eliza Clemm Poe.
• The two were first cousins, although Poe did not meet her until he was nearly an adult. Poe,
parentless and faced with poverty at a young age, sought out the relations of his late father
and was taken in by his Aunt, Maria Clemm.
• Soon after, his cousin Virginia become the object of his affections, and he took her to be his
wife while she was yet thirteen. Although she was young, she claimed happiness in her
marriage with Poe and even wrote poems about her love and devotion to her. Shortly after,
Virginia contracted tuberculosis and ended up dying at the young age of twenty-four. It is
easy to see that Poe felt love and affection for this woman, whom he eventually took as his
bride, though she was only a child at the time.
This poem is one of Poe’s ways of asserting that though Virginia was but a child
when they met, their love for one another was deep and real. In Poe’s time period
and within his society, it was not entirely uncommon for cousins to marry, or for
girls to marry in their teenage years. Poe’s love for Virginia was certainly strong, and
when she died he suffered greatly. In fact, he only lived two years longer than his
late wife, and many still hold that he died of a broken heart. During the years after
the death of Virginia, Poe struggled with severe depression and alcoholism. Some
medical practitioners of his time upon finding him in a semi-conscious state four
days prior to his death, have conjectured that he was suffering from rabies. The
reason for his death is not confirmed.
Evidence by medical practitioners who reopened the case has shown that Poe may have
been suffering from rabies.

Poe’s work as an editor, a poet, and a critic had a profound impact on American and
international literature. His stories mark him as one of the originators of both horror and
detective fiction. Many anthologies credit him as the “architect” of the modern short story. He
was also one of the first critics to focus primarily on the effect of style and structure in a literary
work; as such, he has been seen as a forerunner to the “art for art’s sake” movement.
ANNABEL LEE
Introduction

• "Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. Like
many of Poe's poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman. The narrator, who
fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a love for her so strong that even angels
are envious. He retains his love for her even after her death.

• There has been debate over who, if anyone, was the inspiration for "Annabel Lee". Though many
women have been suggested, Poe's wife Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe is one of the more credible
candidates. Written in 1849, it was not published until shortly after Poe's death that same year.
ANNABEL LEE
Summary

Long ago, "in a kingdom by the sea," lived Annabel Lee, who loved the
narrator. Both she and the narrator were children but knew love more
powerful than that of the angels, who envied them. A wind chilled and killed
Annabel, but their love was too strong to be defeated by angels or demons.
The narrator is reminded of Annabel Lee by everything, including the moon
and the stars, and at night, he lies by her tomb by the sea.
•Like many other Poe poems including "The Raven", "Ulalume", and "To One in Paradise", "Annabel Lee"
follows Poe's favorite theme: the death of a beautiful woman, which Poe called "the most poetical topic in the
world".

•Like women in many other works by Poe, she is struck with illness and marries young. The poem focuses on
an ideal love which is unusually strong. In fact, the narrator's actions show that he not only loves Annabel
Lee, but he worships her, something he can only do after her death.

•The narrator admits that he and Annabel Lee were children when they fell in love, but his explanation that
angels murdered her is in itself childish, suggesting he has not matured much since then. His repetition of this
assertion suggests he is trying to rationalize his own excessive feelings of loss.
Unlike "The Raven", in which the narrator believes he will "nevermore" be reunited with his love,
"Annabel Lee" says the two will be together again, as not even demons "can ever dissever" their souls.

Edgar Allan Poe wrote "Annabel Lee" in May 1849, a few months before his death, and it first appeared
in The Southern Literary Messenger posthumously in November 1849. Although the poem may refer to
a number of women in Poe's life, most acknowledge it to be in memory of Virginia Clemm, Poe's wife
who married him at the age of thirteen and who died in 1847 before she turned twenty-five. The work
returns to Poe's frequent fixation with the Romantic image of a beautiful woman who has died too
suddenly in the flush of youth. As indicated more thoroughly in his short story "The Oval Portrait," Poe
often associated death with the freezing and capturing of beauty, and many of his heroines reach the
pinnacle of loveliness on their deathbed, as with Ligeia of the eponymous story.
The poem specifically mentions the youth of the unnamed narrator and especially of Annabel
Lee, and it celebrates child-like emotions in a way consistent with the ideals of the Romantic
era. Many Romantics from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries viewed adulthood as a
corruption of the purer instincts of childhood, and they preferred nature to society because
they considered it to be a better and more instinctive state. Accordingly, Poe treats the
narrator's childhood love for Annabel Lee as fuller and more eternal than the love of adults.
Annabel Lee is gentle and persistent in her love, and she has no complex emotions that may
darken or complicate her love.
The poem's setting has several Gothic elements, as the kingdom by the sea is lonely and in an
undefined but mysterious location. Poe does not describe the setting with any specificity, and he
weaves a hazy, romantic atmosphere around the kingdom until he ends by offering the stark and
horrific image of a "sepulchre there by the sea." The location by the sea recalls the city of "The
City in the Sea," which is also located by the sea and which is conceptually connected to death and
decay. At the same time, the nostalgic tone and the Gothic background serve to inculcate the image
of a love that outlasts all opposition, from the spiritual jealousy of the angels to the physical
barrier of death. Although Annabel Lee has died, the narrator can still see her "bright eyes," an
image of her soul and of the spark of life that gives a promise of a future meeting between the two
lovers.
As in the case of a number of Poe's male protagonists who mourn the premature death of beloved
women, the love of narrator of "Annabel Lee" goes beyond simple adoration to a more bizarre
attachment. Whereas Annabel Lee seems to have loved him in a straightforward, if nonsexual,
manner, the protagonist has mentally deified her. He blames everyone but himself for her death,
pointing at the conspiracy of angels with nature and at the show of paternalism inherent in her
"highborn kinsmen" who "came and bore her away," and he remains dependent upon her memory.
While the narrator of the poem "Ulalume" suffers from an unconscious need to grieve and to
return to Ulalume's grave, the narrator of "Annabel Lee" chooses ironically to lie down and sleep
next to a woman who is herself lying down by the sea.
The name "Annabel Lee" continues the pattern of a number of Poe's names for his dead
women in that it contains the lulling but melancholy "L" sound. Furthermore, "Annabel Lee"
has a peaceful, musical rhythm which reflects the overall musicality of the poem, which
makes heavy use of the refrain phrases "in this kingdom by the sea" and "of the beautiful
Annabel Lee," as well as of the repetition of other words. In particular, although the poem's
stanzas have a somewhat irregular length and structure, the rhyme scheme continually
emphasizes the three words "me," "Lee," and "sea," enforcing the linked nature of these
concepts within the poem while giving the poem a song-like sound.
 The poem

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago, And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
In a kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
That a maiden there lived whom you may know My beautiful Annabel Lee;
Stanza 3
Stanza 1 By the name of Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came
And this maiden she lived with no other thought And bore her away from me,

Than to love and be loved by me. To shut her up in a sepulcher

In this kingdom by the sea

I was a child and she was a child,

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Stanza 2 In this kingdom by the sea: Stanza 4 Went envying her and me--
But we loved with a love that was more than love- Yes!--that was the reason (as all men know,
I and my Annabel Lee; In this kingdom by the sea)

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
Coveted her and me.
 But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we--
Of many far wiser than we--
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Stanza 5 Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

Stanza 6 And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
STANZA ONE
LINES 1-2
“It was many and many a year ago

In a kingdom by the sea”

These first two lines set the poem up as a fairy tale. The reader can immediately begin to
imagine a time long ago, in a kingdom far away somewhere on the coast of a distant sea.

The fairy tale tone of this poem serves to give the readers an understanding of the speaker’s
experiences within the poem and the effect the occurrences in the poem had on him.
STANZA ONE
LINES 3-4
“That a maiden there lived whom you may know

by the name of Annabel Lee”

These two lines continue the literary tone of a fairy tale. So far, this fairy tale is proceeding
just like many others. We have a time long ago, a kingdom far away, and of course, a maiden.

This maiden quickly becomes the central figure in the poem. She is immediately given a
name, and her name and her description as a “maiden” quickly give readers a picture of a
young and beautiful girl.
STANZA ONE
LINES 5-6
“And this maiden she lived with no other thought
than to love and be loved by me”

These lines reveal the youth of both the speaker and the maiden. They have
no other thoughts or concerns besides love and love alone.

The reader quickly realizes that both the speaker and Annabel Lee are young
and in love. This sets up the speaker and Annabel Lee as very relatable
characters, as the majority of readers will be able to connect with a memory
of young love.
STANZA TWO
LINES 7-8
“I was a child and she was a child
In this Kingdom by the Sea”

These lines serve a few different purposes. First of all, the speaker lets the readers know that they were
in fact, children. He doesn’t use the word “youth” or even “young” so as to let the reader think that
they were perhaps in their early teenage years. He specifies that both of them were children.

In line 8, he repeats that they lived in the Kingdom by the Sea. This repetition not only reminds the
readers of the setting of the poem, but it also has a rather rhythmic effect that helps the poem to
continue to read as a fairy tale with an almost lullaby quality to it. Some have called Poe’s poems
“hypnotic” and perhaps this rhythmic repetition is the reason for this hypnotic effect on readers.
STANZA TWO
LINES 9-10
“But we loved with a love that was more than love
I and my Annabel Lee”

With these lines, the speaker intends to insure the readers that just because they were
but children, does not mean that their love was not very real. The speaker certainly
felt this love at the deepest level and is certain that Annabel Lee feels it no less.

The repetition of her name also serves to further acquaint the reader with the subject
of the poem so that the reader can relate to the speaker in sentiments toward Annabel
Lee.
STANZA TWO
LINES 11-12
“With a love that winged seraphs of heaven
coveted her and me”

These lines further emphasize the love the two children had for each other. It was a love that was
not of this world, for even the angels looked down and felt a jealous pang because of the love that
the two children shared. It was a love that angels, the speaker supposes, could not feel and so they
coveted the feeling the speaker and Annabel Lee had for each other.

This gives an interesting perspectives on angels, as in most literature they are portrayed as holy
beings who look out for and guard human beings. Here, they are portrayed as jealous beings who
look at the children and long for that which they cannot have- human love.
seraph (n): an angel of highest rank

covet (v): to desire or wish for eagerly

STANZA THREE
LINES 13-16
“And this was the reason that, long ago
In this kingdom by the Sea
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee”
• In these lines, there is an abrupt shift. This is no longer
•
a common fairy tale.
Suddenly, Annabel Lee catches a cold from a “wind
that blew out of a cloud”.
• The speaker attributes the reason for this cold to the
covetousness of the angels. He explains that their
feelings of jealousy were in fact “the reason that…a
wind blew out of a cloud, chilling my beautiful
Annabel Lee”.
• In line 16, the speaker refers to Annabel Lee as “my
Annabel Lee”. This possessive tone allows the readers
an even deeper insight into the feelings the speaker
had for her. He felt that the two of them loved one
another as much as any two people could love, and he
felt that he could call her his own.
• Line 15 simply says that Annabel Lee has been
chilled. The readers do not know if she has simply
caught a cold, or if her body is cold and dead-chilled.
STANZA THREE
LINES 17-18
“So that her highborn kinsman came
and bore her away from me”

• Then, still without saying that she was dead, the speaker tells us how her "kinsman" (that just means
a member of her family) came and took her away from him.
• Be sure to notice the word he uses to describe this kinsman. He calls him "highborn" which means
aristocratic, noble. If the speaker himself were "highborn" he probably wouldn't think to mention
this.
• Maybe even before she died there were problems in his relationship with Annabel Lee. Whatever is
going on with the family, you can feel the speaker's pain at losing Annabel, and you can tell that he
feels she is being stolen from him.
• He tells us how the family "bore" (that just means "carried") her away from him.
STANZA THREE
LINES 19-20
“To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea”

Death and Annabel's family are trying to tear these two lovers apart, to "shut
her up" in a "sepulchre" (That's another word for a big fancy building that you
bury someone in, a tomb like you might see in an old cemetery)
 “The angels, not so happy in heaven,
STANZA FOUR Went envying her and me”
LINES 21-26 Yes! That was the reason (as all men know)
In this kingdom by the sea,
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee ”

• With these lines, the speaker reminds the reader that the reason he has lost
his young lover is because of the angels.
• He says that he and Annabel were happier on earth than the angels were in
heaven, and that made them jealous.
• The speaker is extra careful to point out that that everyone ("all men") who
live in the kingdom know that this is a fact.
 “The angels, not so happy in heaven,
STANZA FOUR Went envying her and me”
LINES 21-26 Yes! That was the reason (as all men know)
In this kingdom by the sea,
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee ”

• We don't get any new facts in this stanza, and the story itself doesn't move
forward.
• At the same time, maybe we learn something about the speaker's mental
state.
• The fact that he circles back and repeats the story of Annabel's death might
show us see how traumatic it was for him.
• He can't seem to stop thinking about that moment.
STANZA FIVE “But our love it was stronger by far than the love
LINES 27-29 of those who were older than we

Of many far wiser than we ”

• Even if death might seem to be the end of love, our speaker tells
us that isn't the case for him and Annabel.
• Even though they were young, that didn't stop them from loving
completely, and from knowing what they wanted.
• It leaves the readers with the understanding that this strong love
will not be forgotten with her death.
STANZA FIVE “ And neither the angels in heaven above,

LINES 30-33 Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
/dəˈsevər/
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee”
• He goes on to say that neither the angels in heaven or the
demons who live under the water can stop their love. Nothing
in heaven or hell can "dissever" (that means cut or separate) his
soul and Annabel's soul.
• The bottom line is that their love is eternal, and that nothing
and no one can tear them apart.
STANZA SIX “For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
LINES 34-37 Of the beautiful Annabel Lee
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee”

• Here's the proof that their love between the speaker and Annabel Lee isn't dead
(at least in the mind of the speaker).
• Notice that this stanza starts with a shift from the past tense into the present
tense. He was telling a story about something that happened long ago, but now
he's letting us know what's happening right now.
• The descriptions of his current life
STANZA SIX “For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
LINES 34-37 Of the beautiful Annabel Lee
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee”

• Whenever the moon shines, he dreams of Annabel Lee. Whenever the stars come out, he feels
Annabel's eyes on him. This imagery is shared by many of Poe's poems and stories. His main
characters are often haunted by dreams and visions of women that they loved. Most of the time,
those women are dead but not gone.
• Just notice how weird and intense these images are. He doesn't say: "When I see the stars, I think
of her." He says that when the stars come out "I feel the bright eyes" of Annabel Lee. It's almost
like her eyes are there, and are burning into him.
 “And so, all the night-tide I lie down by the side
STANZA SIX Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride

LINES 38-41 In her sepulchre there by the sea,

In her tomb by the sounding sea.”

• Because their love is unbroken, because they can't be separated by death, our speaker spends his
nights curled up next to Annabel's dead body.
• He follows it up by telling us that she is his darling, his life, and his bride. Now he has officially
called her his bride, giving the sense not only of innocent childhood love, but also of a life-long
commitment.
• The speaker seems increasingly obsessed and unbalanced as the poem goes on, and this is what it
all leads to. He is half-alive and half-dead, sleeping in a tomb by the ocean.
• Poe leaves us with one last haunting phrase, "the sounding sea," which makes us think of the
booming roar of the ocean, suddenly terrifying and cold. There's definitely no happy ending
here.
ANNABEL LEE
1. Who is the author?

2. Who is assumed speaker?

3. What is the setting?

4. What is the format?

5. What lines inform you of Annabel Lee's death?

ANNABEL LEE
1. Who is the author?

"Annabel Lee" is a poem that was written by Edgar Allan Poe. It is

considered to be the last poem that he wrote before his death. The poem looks
at the death of a young woman and the love that the narrator felt for her. The
poem details the love that the narrator felt when he met Annabel and the love
that he still carried for her.
ANNABEL LEE
2. Who is assumed speaker?

The poem is narrated by Annabel Lee's lover, who forcefully rails

against the people—and supernatural beings. It is Edgar Allen Poe.
ANNABEL LEE
3. What is the setting?

Time: 1849

Place: Kingdom by the sea

Atmosphere: blissful, making the poem sound like a fairy tale

ANNABEL LEE
4. What is the format?

"Annabel Lee" consists of six stanzas, three with six lines, one with seven, and
two with eight, with the rhyme pattern differing slightly in each one.

Though it is not technically a ballad, Poe referred to it as one. Like a ballad, the
poem uses repetition of words and phrases purposely to create its mournful effect.
ANNABEL LEE
4. What is the format?

"Annabel Lee" consists of six stanzas, three with six lines, one with seven, and
two with eight, with the rhyme pattern differing slightly in each one.

It was many and many a year ago, A

In a kingdom by the sea, B
That a maiden there lived whom you may know A
By the name of Annabel Lee; B
And this maiden she lived with no other thought C
Than to love and be loved by me. B
ANNABEL LEE
5. What lines inform you of Annabel Lee's death?

In Annabel Lee, lines 25-26 inform the reader of Annabel's death.

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee ”

ANNABEL LEE
6. According to the speaker, why did Annabel Lee die? Put the lines that support

this answer.

According to the narrator, it was precisely because the angels were jealous of he and
Annabel Lee's love that they sent a cold wind one night.
“The angels, not so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me”
lines 21-26
Yes! That was the reason (as all men know)
In this kingdom by the sea,
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee ”

ANNABEL LEE
7. What lines addresses the young age of the two loves?
"She was a child and I was a child,
lines 7-8
in this kingdom by the sea."
ANNABEL LEE
8. What does "coveted" mean, and who portrayed this action?
Covet = desire
The angels
9. What is a synonym to the word "angel"?
Winged seraphs
10. In the 4th stanza, what sound device is "chilling and killing" an example of?
Personification: Personification is to give human characteristics to inanimate
objects. For example, “the wind came out of the cloud by night,/ Chilling and killing
my Annabel Lee” as if the wind is a human and capable of killing another person
ANNABEL LEE
11. What is a synonym for tomb or crypt? Use a word from the poem.
sepulchre /ˈsep.əl.kər/
ANNABEL LEE
12. The speaker states that his and Annabel Lee's love is stronger than what two
groups of people? Write the number of the two lines that support this statement.

“But our love it was stronger by far than the love lines 28-29

of those who were older than we

Of many far wiser than we ”

ANNABEL LEE
13. What is a synonym for "separate"?
Dissever
ANNABEL LEE
13. What is a synonym for "separate"?
14. Of what sound device is line 34 an example?
15. Where are the angels located? The demons?
16. Where does the speaker spend most of his time after the death of Annabel Lee?
17. The speaker seems to have difficulty forgetting his love. What lines support his
interference?
18. What name does the speaker refer Annabel Lee as?
19. How did the speaker describe Annabel Lee?
20. Lines 30-33 have a regular beat (same amount of stressed and unstressed
syllables). What does this refer to?
ANNABEL LEE
14. Of what sound device is line 34 an example?
“For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams”
Internal rhyme
ANNABEL LEE
15. Where are the angels located? The demons?

Angels in the heaven

Demons below the sea

16. Where does the speaker spend most of his time after the death of Annabel Lee?

In her sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.

17. The speaker seems to have difficulty forgetting his love. What lines support his
interference?

Line 34 & 36 -> “for the moon never beams” and “the stars never rise”
ANNABEL LEE
18. What name does the speaker refer Annabel Lee as?

Love, beautiful and darling

19. How did the speaker describe Annabel Lee?

Beautiful, maiden

20. Lines 30-33 have a regular beat (same amount of stressed and unstressed

syllables). What does this refer to?

“The sounding sea” -> sounds like the waves crashing