Annabel Lee, Edgar Allan Poe
(5 points)
Diana Shehade
Pre- Reading:
Listen to this link, which is a performance of the poem, and answer the following
questions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtAXmO0FNj0
1. Describe the melody/music/tone of the song.
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2. How would you describe the singer's voice?
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3. While listening to the song, was there a change in the rhythm? If yes, how did
it make you feel?
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In your opinion, what is the purpose of such a change?
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4. Does this song sound like a modern-day song? If not, what era's music does it
sound like?
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Annabel Lee
By Edgar Allan Poe
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
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;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me—
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.
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
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;
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.
Basic Understanding:
Vocabulary Practice
Thought, angels, bride, bright, envy, stars, tide, child, stronger, feel,
moon
Complete the following sentences using the word-bank:
1. If you practice every day, your body will be _____________.
2. I saw a mother and her ___________ playing together in the park.
3. I love when the sky is clear at night. That's when I can see all the _________
and the _________ shine _________.
4. I could not forget the wonderful conversation I had with my teacher. I
___________about it all day.
5. On her wedding day, she was the most beautiful ________ I have ever seen.
6. We could not swim in the sea today, the _________was too high.
7. You still have to study for another exam. I don't ________you at all! I
______sorry for you.
8. My mother is very protective of me. She is my guardian ___________.
Match the words from column A to their meanings in Column B:
A
Kingdom
Demon
B
an evil spirit or devil
move from a lower position to a higher one; come or go up
Beam
an underground room, for burying the dead.
Rise
a country, state, or territory ruled by a king or queen
Tomb
shine
Blow
(of wind) a move creating an air current
Answer the following questions:
Who is the speaker in the poem?
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Where did Annabel Lee live?
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What was her purpose in life according to the speaker?
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How did the speaker feel about Annabel Lee?
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What was their relationship?
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What happened to Annabel Lee?
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Analysis and Interpretation:
Thinking Skill: Inferring.
When we “infer” we “read between the lines”. We pay attention to the information we
are being given, (words or pictures) and infer information that is NOT being given
explicitly. We also make inferences when we read a text (literature, or an “unseen”
passage, for example). Inferring is also a very important social tool. We make
inferences in our inter-personal relationships with our friends, family, teachers, etc. A
person may TELL us something in words, but either the words they do NOT say or
their body language COULD be implying a different message entirely.
For example:
1. If you are answering the phone at a friend's house and the caller asks for your dad.
The caller is inferring that you are your friend. They are not asking you to go to your
home and fetch your dad 
Read the dialogue and answer the following questions:
2. Speaker 1: How did it go?
Speaker 2: It went well! I didn't even need to use the dictionary, and I finished 30
minutes earlier.
Speaker 1: That is amazing! Tonight we're going to your favorite restaurant, and
you get to stay an hour past your bed time.
Speaker 2: Yes! You're the best!
What is "it" that speaker 1 is talking about?
What kind of exam was it?
Was the exam difficult for speaker 1?
What is the relationship between speaker 1 and speaker 2?
To answer these questions, you used "inferring". The information that you were able
to deduce was not mentioned in the dialogue.
Exercises:
A. Click the following link and practice inferring:
http://reading.ecb.org/student/inferring/
B. Detectives constantly use inferring in their job. They have to figure out details
and get to clues that are hidden from them. Let's get in their shoes! Press the
link and play the game:
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/psu11la.reading.brrdet/blue-ribbonreaders-the-detectives-notebook-game/
*For further exercise, you can play the inferring-version of "Millionaire" on this link:
http://www.quia.com/rr/332704.html
Now that we have learned the skill of inferring, please use it to answer the following
questions about the poem:
1. Why do you think it was important for the speaker to mention that he and
Annabel Lee were young?
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2. The speaker mentions 'envy' in line 12, for what purpose?
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3. What is the speaker expressing in the fifth stanza?
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4. In the last stanza, what does the speaker's actions suggest?
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5. In your opinion, why does the speaker mention supernatural beings and agents (the
murdering wind) and fairytale elements (maiden, kingdom etc.)?
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*I have included 3 options for a literary term.
Literary term: Metaphor (option 1)
Using the characteristics of one thing to describe another. In other words, a metaphor
is a way to compare by saying one thing is another thing.
For example: wings of love, an icy look, a sunny smile (TLC)
Exercise:
Socrates said: "education is the kindling of flame, not the filling of a vessel"
Socrates is comparing education to _____________.
What are the traits of a flame: 1.___________ 2________
3.__________
In your opinion, what is the purpose of this comparison? How does Socrates want
education to be like?
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Socrates is saying that education should not resemble _____________________.
According to Socrates, if education resembled the filling of a vessel, then the filler
would be__________ and the vessel would be ____________.
Why is this unacceptable to Socrates?
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Questions:
Annabel Lee
1. In the first stanza, the speaker compares the place where Annabel Lee lived to a
"kingdom by the sea". Why do you think the speaker uses this comparison?( What
comes to your mind when you think of the work "Kingdom"?)
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2. "I was a child and she was a child". Why does speaker refer to himself and his lover
as
children?_____________________________________________________________
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3. "a wind blew out of a cloud, chilling my beautiful Annabel Lee"
The speaker mentions that a "wind" killed Annabel Lee? What is being compared to
a wind? Why does Poe use this metaphor?
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4. "and the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;"
The speaker compares Annabel Lee's beauty to_______________________________
"And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee"
Explain the metaphor in these lines:
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5. The speaker refers to Annabel Lee as his "life" and "bride". What do these
metaphors tell or reveal about the speaker's love for the deceased Annabel Lee?
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6. How does the image of the "sea" connect to this metaphor?
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Literary term: Ballad (option2)
Ballaballad (BAL-uhd): a narrative folk song. The ballad is traced back to the
Middle- Ages. Ballads were usually created by common people and passed orally due
to the illiteracy of the time. Subjects for ballads include killings, feuds, important
historical events, desire, loss, tragic love, and rebellion. For example, in the
international ballad “Lord Randall,” the young man is poisoned by his sweetheart, and
in “Edward,” the son commits patricide. A common stylistic element of the ballad is
repetition. “A Handbook to Literature notes the ballad occurs in very early literature
in nearly every nation. Therefore, in addition to being entertaining, ballads can help us
to understand a given culture by showing us what values or norms that culture deemed
important.
(http://www2.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm)
Activity: Ballads usually tell a story. Listen to the poem while watching the
following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBvfLiI5uY8
Questions: Analysis and Interpretation
1. Why do you think Poe wrote "Annabel Lee" in the form of a Ballad? Use the
thinking skill of Identifying Parts and Whole to answer this question.
2. Mark the repetitions of sounds and words in the poem. What is the purpose of
such repetitions? Use the thinking skill of Explaining Patterns.
3. Sequence the events in the poem chronologically. Use the thinking skill of
Sequencing. Why was it important for the speaker to state the events in this
order?
Literary term: Theme (option 3)
A theme is an idea or a point that is central to a narrative. It can
often be summed in a single word (for example, love, death,
betrayal etc.) Sometimes a narrative can have more than one
theme. (Wikipedia)
4. What are the themes of poem? Classify the stanzas or events in the poem
according to themes. Use the thinking skill of Classification.
Activity:
Do you recognize the character in the following picture?
*Describe the physical appearance of Frankenstein.
*Summarize the story of Frankenstein or state three things that you know about the
story.
Watch the following clip of the story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H3dFh6GA-A
Frankenstein written by Mary Shelly, is an example of a gothic novel. The
Gothic literary style is present in Annabel Lee. Gothic (goth-IK) is a literary
style popular during the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th.
This style usually portrayed fantastic tales dealing with horror, despair, the
grotesque and other “dark” subjects. Gothic literature was named for the
apparent influence of the dark gothic architecture of the period on the genre.
Also, many of these Gothic tales took places in such “gothic” surroundings.
In essence, gothic stories were romances, largely due to their love of the
imaginary over the logical.
(http://www2.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm)
Which gothic elements did you notice in the clip?
Questions:
5. What are the Gothic elements in "Annabel lee"?
6. What is imaginary in the poem? Why are they mentioned in the poem?
Bridging Text and Context
Edgar Allan Poe was a man of many fears and obsessions which reflected in his
writings. The first of these obsessions was with death, especially the death of
beautiful women. It is speculated that this obsession is related to the unfortunate fact
that almost every woman Poe loved died at a young age. His biological mother died of
tuberculosis two years after Poe was born. His foster mother and his wife also died of
disease. Poe even thought that he was cursed with the "touch of death", a fear which is
expressed in his poems "The Black Cat" and "Annabel Lee" which was written shortly
after the death of his wife. Poe died before its publication.
Moreover, Poe was obsessed with insanity and lack of rationality especially when
expressing emotions and attachment to another person. The majority of Poe's
narrators/speakers are nervous, oversensitive and they tend to have strange fixations
(such as the memory of a lost one, death, powers from beyond this world).
Question:
1. How does this new information connect to the poem?
Optional:
Look at the following pictures of dolls made in the image of Poe and an
assumed image of Annabel lee and connect the appearance of the dolls to the
poem.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/447756387926416646/
(* notice the coffin and Annabel Lee's closed eyes)
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/62206038575698978/
Post Reading:
1. Paraphrase the poem into a short story (3 paragraphs).
2. Re-tell the story in the form of a comic-book. Make sure that your
comics captures the most dramatic moments of the poem. Use one of
these sites to create your comics:
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/
http://www.toondoo.com/
3. Write a letter from the speaker to Annabel Lee expressing how her loss
affected him.
4. Write a letter to the speaker. Offer your condolences, your point of
view on how the speaker is handling his grief and offer ways which
will help him cope with the loss of Annabel Lee.
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Summative Assessment, Annabel Lee
Basic Understanding: (20 points, 4 points each)
1. When did the story in the poem take place? _________________
2. Who lived in a "kingdom by the sea"? _____________________
3. What killed Annabel Lee? ______________________________
4. Who was envious of the speaker and Annabel Lee's love?
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5. Where does the speaker lie down every night?
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Analysis and Interpretation: (60 points, 12 points each)
SUPPORT YOUR ANSWERS WITH INFORMATION FROM THE POEM
1. In the first stanza, the speaker opens his story with fairytale elements like
"it was many and many a year ago" and "in a kingdom by the sea", thus not
offering any specific details about the story. What is the importance of the
omission of specific details and inclusion of fairytale elements instead?
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2. The speaker refers to supernatural powers and beings when describing the
reasons which led to and caused Annabel lee's death such as "the wind",
"seraphs" and "angels". Why do you think the speaker preferred to use
these terms instead of listing a more familiar cause of death, such as
sickness
or
accidents?____________________________________________________
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3. The "sea" is a recurrent image in the poem. What does it stand for?
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4. What are the themes discussed in the poem?
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5. In the last stanza of the poem, we are told that speaker lies every night by
the tomb of Annabel Lee. Whether you choose to refer to this detail as a
metaphor or an actual act, state the reason or reasons as to why you think
the speaker does this.
The HOTS I chose to answer this question is __________________.
Answer:_____________________________________________________
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Bridging Text and Context: (20 points)
“The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in
the world.”
—Edgar Allan Poe
Explain how this quote relates to the poem.
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Answer Key
Basic Understanding:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Many and many years ago/ many years ago.
Annabel Lee.
A wind/ the wind.
The angels.
By Annabel lee's tomb/grave/sepulcher.
Analysis and Interpretation:
1. Students should refer to the following:
a. Omission of specific details brings focus to the main theme of the poem
which is the greatness of the love that the speaker shared with Annabel
Lee.
b. Fairytale elements make the speaker and Annabel Lee's love magical,
great, and eternal- a tale of generations.
2. The speaker mentions supernatural elements to stress how he feels about the
abrupt and violent separation from A.L. Also, the use of supernatural elements
stresses how helpless the speaker feels about A.L death, that there was nothing
in his power to prevent it.
3. The sea is an image of infinity/eternity. This image reflects the speaker's
undying love for A.L.
4. (Grand/strong ) Love, Death and Mourning.
5. Sequencing: the love of his life dies, therefore he mourns her death each night
by her grave.
Inferring: In the poem there are many attempts to take A.L away from the
speaker: the wind kills her, her high kinsmen took her away from the speaker
and angels' envy leads to her death. The speaker wishes to stress the strength
of their love, and that not even death can separate his soul from A.L's.
Therefore, as long as the moon and stars shine they will be a constant
reminder of A.L's beauty and he will always remember her. He will always be
by her side, metaphorically through memory and love or physically by the side
of her grave.
Problem Solving: Annabel Lee's death created a problem for the speaker, it
separated his from the love of his life. Therefore, lying by her grave at night
offers a semi-solution/ temporary solution/ closeness to A.L.
Bridging text and context:
Students should refer the glorification of Annabel Lee's beauty, how her death was
made poetic, tragic and mysterious by the inclusion of fairytale elements, super
natural beings/powers and the speaker's inability to detach himself both physically
and spiritually from her (grave/memory/love). All of this turns A.L into a figure of
adoration and admiration.
Poem Pouch: Annabelle Lee
1. A picture of a kingdom.
2. A recording of wave-sounds.
3. A picture of a maiden.
4. A heart (picture or item).
5. A picture/ a short clip (YouTube) of children playing or miniature dolls of
children.
6. A cut out of an angel/ a small figurine of an Angel.
7. A cut out of a wind image/ or a recording of wind-sounds.
8. A picture of a Poe doll holding the departed Annabelle Lee.
9. Take the heart picture/item and rip it/break it.
10. A picture of a clear sky, where the moon and starts can be seen very clearly.
*Also, the teacher could hand in a copy of the poem with illustrations and not
the regular copy.
*There is a number of videos on You Tube like the one that I used in my prereading activity where there is a reading and enactment of the poem in the
video. The teacher could also use one of these videos.
In the pages which follow, I included some photos which could be of use (all
taken from www.pinterest.com- search word Annabel Lee).