Edgar Allan Poe's Annabel Lee

Does love fade after death? Not for famous American writer Edgar Allan Poe. Poe’s Annabel Lee is a masterfully written poem that explores the idea of love and mortality. Annabel Lee describes the unwavering love before and after the death of the narrator’s sweetheart, Annabel Lee. The eternal love may appear sweet at first but grows more and more unsettling. Poe uses various technical devices to better convey the themes of love, mortality, and the supernatural seen throughout the work of art. Poe’s use of technical devices in Annabel Lee are plentiful and unconventional. The rhyme scheme begins with a traditional ABABCB. The next stanza, however, continues with a different rhyme scheme, DBEBFB. The following stanza has a rhyme scheme of GBHBIBJB. The only rhyme that stays constant is the “B” rhyme, with the ‘ee’

The “B” rhyme is an exact or pure rhyme, meaning the endings have identical final sounds. The ‘ee’ sound is significant because it rhymes with Annabel Lee, the title and main focus of the work. The repetition of the phrase, “Kingdom by the Sea” constitutes for much of the recurring ‘ee’ sounds. The use of this repetition allows the poem to flow well by tying the content together. Towards the end of the poem, in the fourth and fifth stanza, there is a sudden change in the rhyming pattern. These breaks in the flow of the poem suggest a shift in the mood. During these stanzas, the narrator begins to express his feeling about the death of his love. To further emphasize the shift in the poem, Poe uses personification. Poe writes, “The wind came out of the cloud by night, chilling and killing my Annabel Lee”. He personifies, gives human