Edgar Allan Poe was an American short-story writer, poet critic and editor. Edgar only lived for forty years but during his brief lifetime, he made a permanent place for himself in American Literature and also in world literature. Edgar was born in 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts to two “poor” parents, he was then orphaned at the age of two, and then adopted by a man named John Allan who he grew to never like. He was broke for much of his life and often begged for money that he then spent on his alcohol and gambling problem. He died impoverished at the age of 40 after being found scruffy and unconscious in Baltimore. “Annabel Lee” is about a beautiful but painful memory. The speaker of the poem is remembering his long – but not forgotten – love, Annabel Lee. The speaker had known Annabel Lee many years ago, when she was a girl, and they both …show more content…
It is seen as a bad thing however, with the speaker blaming the angels for killing his girlfriend. Apparently, a wind came down from the clouds, causing Annabel Lee to fall sick and then eventually killing her. When this occurred, Annabel Lee’s relatives came and took her away from the speaker, and shut her up in a tomb. The speaker wants us to know that his apparent love for Annabel Lee wasn’t just a teenage crush. The speaker states that the tiniest thing like death wasn’t going to separate him from Annabel Lee. The speaker tells that he still sees Annabel everywhere, in his dreams and in the stars. Lastly, in a weird description, the speaker says that he loves Annabel Lee so much that he goes and lies down with her in her tomb every night. Annabel Lee is in some ways a simple ballad – that is, a narrative poem intended to be recited with a sad and somewhat dark message. Personally, this poem was an interesting read with an interesting background. Annabel Lee consists of six stanzas, three that contain six lines, one that contains seven and two that have
Some believe that Annabel Lee was written for his wife, but others think that the love of his life, Sarah Emira Royster, that he was parted from as a youth of 18, was the true recipient for the beautiful but morbid poem. . Mr. Poe was scheduled to wed the same Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton just days before his death. “The significance of “Annabel Lee” to their relationship may, however, be reflected in the account of his desire to have it published for the first time with their wedding announcement in the local papers. Since Poe died just ten days before they would have been married, the poem was instead first printed at the end of his obituary written by Rufus Griswold in the New York Daily Tribune” (Poe Museum)
A Comparison of Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee and The Raven. With insistent meter and captivating rhyme schemes, Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven” are both very similar. However, in their views of love, namely the loss and mourning of beautiful women, they differ greatly. Through analysis of the two poems, the reader observes that whom Poe had chosen for a speaker, the tone and the sound effects are all factors in both poems that make two poems with a similar theme contrast.
Edgar Allan Poe's view on poetry is that all poems must be a "rhythmical creation of beauty". In his eyes, melancholy and sadness is beautful. He thinks that the death of a young beautiful woman is itself full of beauty. In both "Annabel Lee" and "The Raven", Poe writes about this so-called beauty.
Poe was likely influenced by the death of his wife, his gloomy childhood, and Tuberculosis. To begin, Poe may have been influenced by his wife’s death to write “Annabel Lee.” First, Poe loved his wife Virginia very much and they lived a good life. Similarly, the narrator in “Annabel Lee” was in love with Annabel and they were very happy together. In addition, Poe’s wife Virginia died of Tuberculosis at a young age. Likewise, Annabel died at a very young age by “the wind chilling her.” Therefore, the death of Virginia, Poe’s wife, influenced him to write “Annabel Lee.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was born to traveling actors in Boston. He was hit hard with death at a young age as his mother and father both died within two days when Poe was only two years old. The wealthy John Allan and his wife became the legal guardians of young Edgar. When Edgar was fourteen, he met the first woman in his life, Jane Stith Stanard, the inspiration to his poem “To Helen”(1831). However, Mrs. Stanard passed away only a year after Poe first met her. In 1825 Poe became engaged with Elmira Royster. While he was away from her, he would write her many letters; however, Elmira’s parents intercepted the letters. Edgar wondered why she never replied, and when he went back to see her, he found out that she married someone else. This left Poe in a very depressed state. Poe’s relationship with the Allans was never secure, and this became evident when John Allan refused to pay Edgar’s debts at the University of Virginia. Edgar was then kicked out of school. In the next couple of years Poe has to fight through the death of his foster mother and his brother. Then in 1833 he moved in with his Aunt Maria Clemm. John Allan died a year later. He then married his cousin Virginia three years later. Virginia then died in 1842 (Anderson 9-64). Poe was introduced to death and betrayal throughout his young life leaving him in a very depressed state, and these traits are present throughout his short stories and poems.
The death of Edgar Allen Poe’s young bride prompted a wealth of bitter resentment in the writer. While this is evidenced in many of his works, nowhere is his antipathy more explicit than in the poem, “Annabel Lee”.
In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven and Annabel Lee Poe uses a very sagacious structure. In The Raven for example, at the end of every paragraph, Poe rhymes every stanza at a specific place which he uses throughout the whole poem. Although defined rhyme structure is what both Annabel Lee somewhat lacks, both poems have similar themes, such that of life, death, and love. The Raven and Annabel Lee alike have many structural and stylistic similarities which Poe is known for.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "Annabel Lee." Poetry Foundation. Ed. Poetry Foundation. Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
A mutual understanding towards many of Poe’s works is that the loss of a lover brings about insanity, but the truth is that in Poe’s works the loss of a young lover leads to depression. This is a theme that is played out in more than one of Poe’s works, but it is most prevalent in the depressing poem Annabel Lee. The speaker is conflicted with losing what is his whole world and his childhood lover. While all is well with both him and the girl alive, an insurmountable depression takes hold once the winds blow out to carry her to the grave. This is a theme that plays out often in his works and has been observed as one of his main inspirations. Within Peter Coviello’s research, he comes to the conclusion that “Within [Poe’s] world, only very young girls, who are not yet encumbered by the revulsions of adult femininity, seem capable of providing a site for stable heterosexual male desire in Poe.” Rather than using a full fledged adult as his lover, he engineered a child into his poem so the lover does not harness the potential to mutate into a monstros...
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic. He made many great literary works such as, “Annabel Lee”, “The Raven” and “The Sphinx”. Poe had a bumpy life which made a huge influence of his literary works. In his many literary works, death, sickness, failure and lost love are the main themes. He is yearning for ideals and myths such as love and good life but the reality is cruel, it destroyed his normal life. Therefore, the author put his attitude and feelings about his life into his works, and he led readers into his story.
Anyone who has read the work of Edgar Allan Poe knows that his mind was not in the same place as those who read it. In other words the poet was madly insane. But why? What caused the man’s mind to be so twisted and twined, portrayed in his work with every belligerent line, and meanings so hard to describe, to become this way? Many people say that a woman can make a man go mad; in Poe’s case, it was. In his two poems, “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven”, Poe describes the loss and longing for a woman tragically taken from him. He also secretly, and possibly unconsciously, puts his perspective on how he sees his perfect woman and other women that are either in or around his life. “Annabel Lee” brings forward what he had and what he loves, while “The Raven” brings all that is left and all that can be.
The poem “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allen Poe is a beautiful story that outlines events that happened between the speaker and his love. The story paints a mental picture of a love that is so strong that angels become jealous and take Annabel Lee away from the speaker, but even though she is gone, his love for her never ended. The story is full of imagery that leads to the central message of the story, which is love.
The diction of “Annabel Lee” helps create the impression of a fairy tale-like love story. With words such as “maiden” (line 3), “kingdom” (line 8), “beautiful” (line 16), “high-born kinsmen” (line 17), Poe paints a picture of a whimsical, fantastic love story when, in reality, Annabel Lee dies in her girlhood. This is wherein lies the irony: the glamorization of the persona’s love of Annabel Lee
In this project, I will be discussing about my poet Edgar Allan Poe. Poe had written numerous of poems and stories but the one I chose was “Annabel Lee”. This poem was written in 1849 which was a long time ago. Even though this poem is centuries old, it is still a well known poem. This whole project includes a biography, literary movement, and a explication about the poem.
Poe was an American poet who contributed many great pieces of literature to our society. His works illustrate and portray a realm of both paranormal and morbid beauty. In each poem usually lies a demonic undertone, that frequently summed up to a type of conclusion that can in one way or another pertain to h is life’s reminiscences. A common choice of topic for Poe was his love for his wife Virginia, who tragically died of tuberculosis. His poems that revolve around her, more often then not, contain a tone of sadness, loneliness, and despair. In both "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee" he makes reference to her as the long lost Lenore. Whether it was a way for him to idolize, or recollect on his memories of her he always seemed to do it in a haunting and surreal way.