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Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

Analysis

This was the last completed poem by Poe before his death. It was published shortly after his life ended in 1849. The narrator talks about his lost love, Annabel Lee. It may have been a reference to his relationship with his wife Virginia.

This poem consists of six stanzas which vary between six and eight lines. The rhyme scheme is different than what you might have seen elsewhere. In this poem, Poe gives each even line an end-rhyme of a long E sound. However, sometimes he rhymes the odd lines with it as well or rhymes the odd lines together. Regardless, his only consistent rhyme is with the evens.

Poem

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.

She was a child and I 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 winged 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 by night
  Chilling my Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsman 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 a cloud, 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 see 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 side of the sea.

Published in 1849.

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