Annabel Lee
By Edgar Allan Poe
Stanza 1
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.
line 1: Equivalent to “once upon a time” giving the poem a fairy
tale feel, which is reinforced by line 2. It also gives us a clue that
this is a flashback or story. Capitalizing her name gives her an
almost divine stature.
The subject is revealed (Annabel Lee)
Stanza 2
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 loveI and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
Line 1 shows us that they were young, maybe not actually children
by age, but in their naiveté about love and the world. And it is
because of this love that the angels in heaven were jealous of the
couple. By the way, winged seraphs are angels, and coveted is to
wish for longingly (or to be jealous of, as this case proves to be).
Stanza 3
• 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 kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The speaker had put her on an extremely high pedestal that seemed to make her
an angel, or she was innocent and perfect so they put her away where she
couldn’t be so and end their love. There is also evidence of foreshadowing as line
3 says “A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling…” By the way, a sepulchre is a
chamber used as a grave.
Stanza 4
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and meYes!- 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.
The angels were jealous of their love and there is a self- insert in the
poem that shows the reader that he is telling the story to someone or he
is remembering the events and is making claims with is after so many
years. It also shows us that it is a universal love story, even though
Annabel Lee dies.
The Time Frame Changes…
Stanza 5
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than weOf many far wiser than weAnd 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.
The motif that love will go on, no matter what forces (be they
God or Satan, as is referenced- Biblical allusion!!!!).
Stanza 6
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 the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
He remembers her through personifying the moon that it brings him dreams, that she is
watching over him with “bright eyes.” The last four lines tell us that he is laying down by her
tomb, or her corpse, and he has been doing so for years as he calls her his life. I hope you
remember what a sepulchre is!!!!!
Literary Terms and Techniques that haven't
already been mentioned…
•
Those damn six questions…
 Speaker: believed to be Poe, as he wrote this after the death of his wife (Virginia) as it was
written in 1849 (Virginia died in 1847)
 Subject: Annabel Lee
 Tone: sad, but determined to make sense of what happened
 Mood: also sad, but very nostalgic and fairytale like.
 The theme is that everlasting love exists or that love will go on if you haven’t died from
sleeping next to her corpse for years…
There is a rhyme scheme that helps with the poem’s rhythm
Stanzas 1-4 have every other last word rhyme (it’s also the same
words over and over: me, sea, and Lee. Stanza 5 goes a bit off
course, having lines 2 and 3 as a couplet and lines 5 and 7 rhyme.
Stanza six is the oddest, with lines 2- 8 having a rhyme scheme: A,
B, A, B, B, A, A.
How the Video Relates to the Poem
The video clip relates to the poem in that it is a
universal love story (albeit a tragic one). Also
there are unearthly forces that take away the
maiden (even if they are aliens) and it shows the
Doctor’s determination to find her. The final
good-bye is almost like him writing her a poem
as it is believed that Poe had done for his dead
wife. Also the scene on Bad Wolf Bay (where
they are) helps because they are by the sea (a
kingdom by the sea).