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Edgar Allan Poe literature
Annabel lee analysis paper
Edgar Allan Poe literature
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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. Stanzas one and two of the poem are full of imagery. The first stanza sets the scene for the poem “in a kingdom by the sea” (Poe 609) which makes you feel as if the story is going to have a “romantic” (Overview) feel to it. Then Annabel Lee comes into the story with “no other thought than to love and be loved by me” (Poe 609); This sentence is full of imagery in the sense that it makes you feel the immense capacity of love Annabel Lee had for the speaker if that was her only thought. In the second stanza the imagery takes a turn that shifts from loving and inviting to pain; The love between Annabel and the speaker was so strong that …show more content…
Stanza five paints a picture that their love was stronger than anybody’s ever was on land or sea, and that nobody can take the writer away from his love: this is supported by the speaker making the statement “ but our love was stronger by far than the love of those who were older than we” (Poe 609), 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” (Poe 610). The last stanza is very grim when it states “I lie down by the side of my darling… In the sepulchre there by the sea” (Poe 610). It paints a gross picture that the speaker loved Annabel Lee so much that he was willing to lay next to the body of her dead corpse, not letting death take her away from him. The imagery in the last two stanzas support the message of the
The first stanza describes the depth of despair that the speaker is feeling, without further explanation on its causes. The short length of the lines add a sense of incompleteness and hesitance the speaker feels towards his/ her emotions. This is successful in sparking the interest of the readers, as it makes the readers wonder about the events that lead to these emotions. The second and third stanza describe the agony the speaker is in, and the long lines work to add a sense of longing and the outpouring emotion the speaker is struggling with. The last stanza, again structured with short lines, finally reveals the speaker 's innermost desire to "make love" to the person the speaker is in love
In "Annabel Lee", a young man is mourning the death of a beautiful young lady. Even though the woman had died quite some time ago, the man is still in melancholy. He misses her terribly and constantly thinks of how she was she was tragically taken from him by the angels who were jealous of their love, and by her family who didn't think the he himself was capable of bringing her to her final resting place. He loved Annabel Lee more than anyother human can love another. The following quote tells the reader how much he loves her and shows that he would do anything for her, even if that means sleeping by her tomb, each and every night. "And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side of my darling, my life and my bride, in her sepulchre there by the sea, in her tomb by the side of the sea."
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.”
Annnabel Lee is a poem of two lovers, in their own world, living a perfect life. This poem reflects Poe 's own pain, in which Annabel Lee dies, and her lover is heartbroken.
Poe was born into a family of professional actors. He experienced death at an early age when his parent died before he was three years old. John and Frances Allan raised Poe as a foster child in Richmond. John Allan gave Poe excellent schooling opportunities. Though he never finished college, Poe became very successful by using his life experiences to write dark, twisted literature that appealed to adults ("Edgar Allan Poe"). The last of Poe’s poems to be published was “Annabel Lee.” It is thought to be inspired by his late wife Virginia (Johnson). In this poem the speaker mourns the death of his young bride, Annabel Lee. His loss encourages him to proclaim that jealous angels caused Annabel Lee’s death to separate the young couple. The speaker reveals that he has not been able to accept their separation and has been spending night after night at her tomb (Johnson). The use of figurative language further establishes the theme of jealousy. Poe uses personification of the wind to explain the death of Annabel Lee ("Overview: 'Annabel Lee'."). The “chilling” wind is what takes Annabel Lee away from the speaker (Poe Line 26). The article "Overview: 'Annabel Lee'" states, “A chilling wind emerges from the sky, and so her death is tied to heaven and the jealousy of the angels” ("Overview: 'Annabel Lee'"). Poe uses imagery to refer to the jealousy the angels have for the speaker and Annabel Lee’s love. Poe states, “The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, /Went envying her and me” (Poe Lines 21-22). This imagery that the angels are not happy in Heaven further emphasizes the extent of their jealousy. The double naming of Annabel Lee’s burial chamber is a metaphor to allow the theme of death to overshadow the theme of love. This is able to show that their love can conquer the grave and overcome the jealousy from the angels("Overview: 'Annabel
Poe's obsession with dying women stems from his own life. His mother died when he was only three. His first love, Elmira Royster was forbidden from associating with him by her father. His child-wife, Virginia, who was also his cousin, died at the age of 24. Just when he found Elmira once again, who was by this time a widow, he died of his own health problems. These stinging losses, especially that of his mother, left a subconscious scar in his already convoluted psyche. Poe's personal history compelled him...
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
The poem says that "since feeling is first" (line 1) the one who pays attention to the meaning of things will never truly embrace. The poem states that it is better to be a fool, or to live by emotions while one is young. The narrator declares that his "blood approves" (line 7) showing that his heart approves of living by feeling, and that the fate of feeling enjoyment is better than one of "wisdom" (line 9) or learning. He tells his "lady" (line 10) not to cry, showing that he is speaking to her. He believes that she can make him feel better than anything he could think of, because her "eyelids" (line 12) say that they are "for each other" (line 13). Then, after all she's said and thought, his "lady" forgets the seriousness of thought and leans into the narrator's arms because life is not a "paragraph" (line 15), meaning that life is brief. The last line in the poem is a statement which means that death is no small thi...
Starting in the first stanza we see that Annabel Lee is referred to specifically as a maiden. Maidens are unmarried women, and the word is often associated with virginity. From this we can conclude that Poe wants to emphasize Annabel Lee’s purity. The word choice in “maiden” lets the reader know early on that this poem is not about lust, but rather love and the genuine connection that comes with it. In the third stanza, as previously discussed, Poe goes out of his way to emphasize that both the narrator and Annabel Lee were children. However, the word choice of “child” is interesting because it is ambiguous whether it is literal or not. By choosing to portray the two lovers as children, Poe once again enforces the themes of purity, innocence, and virginity that children and maidens have in common. Poe wants the reader to understand that there is no sin between the two lovers, only an undying love. Knowing this it is now easy to see why Poe asserts that the angels would be jealous of their love, as the angels would believe only such a pure love should be reserved for God. Continuing to analyze the theme of holiness and purity, even more interesting details can be found in the word choice of sepulchre. A sepulchre is simply a tomb, however the word sepulchre itself is more often associated with religious
Most people agree that Edgar Allan Poe wrote "Annabel Lee" about his departed wife, Virginia Clemm, who died of tuberculosis two years earlier. Some critics, however, contend that in the seventh 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 about an earlier love, or perhaps it is purely fictional, but addressing 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 is seems logical that it is indeed written about her and is simply embellished with a bit of poetic license.
4. In lines 85 to the end of the poem is where we can find the true meaning of the piece. After what seems to be a very bi-polar first part, the speaker finally settles with being one of a kind. She claims that “song has touched her lips with fire/ and made her heart a shrine;” and feels as if she has this special gift (poetry) that she hopes will be remembered forever.
In “Annabel Lee,” his most common refrains are “Annabel Lee,” and “In this kingdom by the sea.” He claims that the refrain must be brief because if it were long it would not have the same effect on the reader. Choosing the word or words for refrain do have meaning, they are not just a word or phrase that is repeated every so often. Poe expresses, “The sound of the refrain being thus determined, it became necessary to select a word embodying this sound, and at the same time in the fullest possible keeping with that melancholy which I had pre-determined as the tone of the poem” (“The Philosophy of Composition”741). This means that the word must still reflect the tone you are portraying throughout. “Annabel Lee,” uses “In a kingdom by the sea.” This phrase sounds just like, “once upon a time,” in my opinion. It serves what he may be trying to get across. This love he and Annabel Lee share is so rare and beautiful it is one just like we hear about in fairy tales. This refrain may have been purposely chosen for that reason. When he repeats, “Annabel Lee,” or “my beautiful Annabel Lee,” he puts emphasis on her name and that she was his and still
Poems have really intricate meanings that can be portrayed in many different ways. They can be used to express feelings and emotions towards someone or something. Poems can be about love, hate, nature, or anything in particular. The poem “Annabel Lee,” by Edgar Allan Poe is a romantic poem, written during the Romanticism period. The poem is about the narrator, a young man, who is dealing with the tragic loss of his fair maiden, whom he fell in love with at a young age. The love between the couple is described as very childlike and innocent. Their love for each other is extremely passionate, for that reason, the angels became jealous and killed Annabel Lee. Although his wife passed away, the narrator does not want to give up on their love and
The explication was an opinion thought and also details about this poem. I found out that poems have a lot of meanings once you annotate it and break it down. “Annabel Lee” was an interesting poem that had brought out my attention. Although poems are not one of my biggest things to read or do, I enjoyed “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe.
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.