Edgar Allan Poe's Annabel Lee

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Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809. Poe was an American poet and short story writer. His father left his family after Poe was born and his mother died of tuberculosis about three years later. Therefore, Poe never knew his parents and was raised by John and Francis Allan, friends of Poe’s parents. Poe attended the University of Virginia in 1926. However, his gambling debts caused him to dropout within two semesters. After leaving the university, Poe joined the Southern Literary Messenger. This helped him get a start with writing short stories and poems, and became a renowned literary critic but because of his aggressive reviews and alcoholism, he was removed from the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1836, Poe married his thirteen year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. Eleven years later, Clemm would die of tuberculosis, the same cause of death of Poe’s mother (“SparkNotes on Poe’s Short Stories” SparkNotes.com). The death of Virginia Clemm has been said to be the inspiration of the poem “Annabel Lee” which dwells into the beauty and death of women. Poe uses imagery to create a beautiful yet haunting setting, and also internal rhyme and alliteration to create flow in the poem.
“Annabel Lee” is a narrative poem that tells a story about the love between the narrator and his lover, Annabel Lee. The rhyme scheme is not consistent throughout the poem. The poem starts out as an ABABCB rhyme scheme. However, in the second stanza, Poe starts using a variation of an anaphora repeating his words in line seven “I was a child and she was a child.” Even though it does not help with consistency in the poem, it does help with flow of the poem. Because Poe used an anaphora, it helps emphasis the innocence of the love shared between the narrato...

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...or Annabel Lee. At first, it was beautiful and majestic. However, it turned for the worst when she died. Because he had a lot of love for her, he was devastated and one can argue a bit of himself died along with her. This resulted in his naiveness “Of those who were older than we- / Of many far wiser than we-” saying nothing can separate them, not even death “And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side.” This poem was a remembrance of the Poe’s wife, Virginia Clemm, and how much it tore Poe apart. He writes this in a remembrance and a way to cope with the death of his beloved wife.

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. “Annabel Lee.” Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. Literature Poetry: Craft and Voice. New York City: McGraw Hill, 2010. 438. Print.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Poe’s Short Stories.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 9. April. 2014.

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