Annabel Lee

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I'm here to talk about the poem "Annabel Lee", which was written by Edgar Allan Poe ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ANNABEL LEE 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 that 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, 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 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 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 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 the sepulchre by the sea, in her tomb by the sounding sea. --edgar allan poe ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Written in 1849, Annabel Lee was published the same year, just two days after Poe's death on October 7. It appeared in two newspapers, the Richmond Examiner and the Ney York Tribune, and then in the 1850 edition of The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe. The poem has since become one of Poe's most popular works. Most people agreed that Poe wrote this poem about his departed wife, Virginia Clemm, who died of tuberculosis two years earlier. Some critics, however, contend that in the seveth line of the poem, he states, "I was a child and she was a child", and he certainly was no child in 1836 at twenty-seven when he married his thirteen-year-old bride. Maybe the poem is baout an earlier love, or perhaps it is purely fictional, but adressing Annabel Lee as his "life and (his) bride" in line thirty-eight and writing it two years after his beloved young wife's death, it seems logical that it is indeed written about her and is simply overstated with a bit of poetic license. Using a melodious narrative form, the speaker laments the death of his beloved young wife Annabel Lee. His loss moves him to state that "envious angels" caused the girl's death to separate the young married couple. He tells briefly of her funeral and entombment in her sepulcher (tomb) by the sea. The narrator then reveals that he has been unable to accept their separation. Since her death, he has spent night after night at her tomb, an astonishing and perverse example of the immortality of young love. What did you feel when you first read this poem? Is it grief? Or are you as angry as he was? In the first two stanzas the poet feels nostalgic because we can feel that he's reconciling the past. In the 4th and 5th stanzas, we can say that the poet is heart broken because of the idea of the wind killing (his) Annabel Lee. He is blaming the wind for the death of his maiden. In the last two stanzas, the poet used imagery from nature to unite with Annabel Lee. The poet is obviously depressed and is trying to show us on how he coped with the loss of his beloved. As we can see, there is a change in mood through out the poem, from being nostalgic to sadness or depression but overall the poem leaves the reader with a feeling of sympathy over the poet because of his great loss. The poem has a simple structure with six stanzas, which helps to unfold his love story. The creative usage of simple structures helps to convey the flow of the narrative. The last word of every second line rhymes; this is to help with the flow the story to show us the deep and everlasting love that he had for his maiden. Regular rhythm is used to emphasize his love for her. The poet uses words/languages from nature, such as envious angels, kingdom by the sea and winged seraphs of heaven, to create imagery to descibe his love. Throughout the whole poem, the poet used religious and fantasy symbols to refer to the afterlife. This is to show us that his love for her will never cease. He also used assonance and alliteration (i.e. assonance: killing and chilling; alliteration: love with a love that was more than love) to emphasize his grief and by using the idea of repetition, he is conveying to us his deep feelings for her. Have you noticed the divergent reading of the poem? The poem is like a fairytale is it not? He used the whole idea of fairytale to create a fantasy that their love never ends. This is evident through the use of the words like seraphs, sepulcher, angels, demons, kingdom by the sea, etc. A fairytale is consisted of a romantic place, protagonists and antagonists. In this poem, the protagonists are the narrator and, of course, Annabel Lee, while the antagonists are the wind, angels, seraphs and demons which bored her away from him but even though the maiden died, his love for her will never fade, just like in a fairytale where the protagonists live happily ever after. If we chang the gender roles in the poem, do you thin the story/poem will have a different effect? For me, it will not change, for i believe that women are more emotional than men and because the poem is about a love that transcends time. We all know that love is universal. If we change the name Annabel Lee to a man's name and the word maiden to prince, the poem will be pretty much the same as the original except for the gender roles. During those times, there weren't many known female writers/poets for they are not allowed to express their feelings publicly. Do you thinkm that if the poet is a woman, would she be free to express her feelings? Of course, they are free but as I've said, not in public. Let's put it this way, during those times, an old man marrying a young girl is acceptable, but how about an older woman marrying a young lad? Do you think it would still be acceptable? I don't think so. We know that the poem is written by an old man who married a thirteen year old girl but if we changed their roles, would it be acceptable fpr a woman to write a poem like this? Maybe not, but perhaps if they were of the same age, it would be. I chose this poem because of the poet's idea of using a fairytale concept. We can say that it is a very interesting poem because of the way the poet wrote it. The fairytale concept of the poem has a great impact on emphasizing the idea of an everlasting love.