Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
For raw, gripping, emotional angst, Annabel Lee gets my vote for the theme of "love and sad poems." Edgar Allan Poe really knew how to write poetry.
The driving, pounding, inexorable rhythm and meter of this poem, written about his wife after her death, resonates in our brains and propels us to the finality of the tomb. Read it out loud, and let yourself get carried away by the accelerating, tumbling, cascading grief of a bereft lover.Despite the fact that Edgar Allen Poe married an underage cousin, was a hopeless alcoholic, and had some psychological "issues," he also wielded a mighty pen and is one of the first and one of the greatest of recognized American poets. 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 than 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 sepulcher
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 the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love 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 feel 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 sepulcher there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea. *Note - Ed: An examination of the "scansion" of this poem reveals it to be anapest - a meter that is used in limerick poetry extensively to a humorous effect, but one that here shows its versatility as an expression of overwhelming grief. There are alternating lines of four feet of anapest with three feet of the same meter following. For sheer angst, this poem by Edgar Allan Poe has no rival, but for a brighter view,
turn from Annabel Lee and read Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
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