Nazia Chowdhury

Based on Edgar Allen Poes poem of Annabel Lee, I was left feeling desolate and disappointed
because of the message that I personally interpreted. Despite this, it still became one of my favorite poems
because of the deep feeling it gave me. Although one may be physically gone from you, they are always
mentally there with you. You should never give up on a powerful love. "Annabel Lee" is a sincere poem
about a beautiful, painful memory regarding the speaker. The speaker of the poem is remembering his
long-lost love, Annabel Lee. The speaker knew Annabel Lee many years ago, when she was a girl, and
they both lived "in a kingdom by the sea" (line 2). Even though they were only children, the two were still
intensely in love. They were so deeply in love that even the angels in heaven noticed and became
jealous and envied them. It causes the speaker to blame the angels for the death of Annabel Lee: a wind
came down from the clouds, which made Annabel Lee sick and then eventually killed her. When this
happened, her relatives - highborn kingsmen - came and took her away from the speaker, and shut her
up in a tomb.
The speaker wants us to know that his love for Annabel Lee wasn't just any love; it was intense.
Even something as dramatic like death is not going to separate him from Annabel Lee. Not even angels or
devils could do that. He still sees her everywhere, in his dreams and in the stars. In fact, he still loves her
so much that he goes and lies down with her in her tomb every night. Thus, the
poet writes Annabel Lee in
the most unique tone. When the poem begins, it sounds like a fairy tale and gives the reader a feeling of
all that is positive and happy. It states But we loved with a love that was more than love (stanza 2, line
3), exemplifying how their love could not be captured in words. However, underneath this joyful tone is a
tone that is more ominous and gloomy, and Poe uses certain diction in order to give this eerie feeling to
the readers: their mood.
In stanza 2, line 5-6, it states With a love that winged seraphs of heaven/ coveted her and me.
These lines further emphasize the love the two children had for each other. It was a love that was not of
this world, for even the angels looked down and felt a jealous pang because of the love that the two
children shared. It was a love that angels, the speaker supposes, could not feel and so they coveted the
feeling the speaker and Annabel Lee had for each other, cursing Annabel. Angels are majorly portrayed as

holy beings who look out for and guard human beings, yet here, they are showed as jealous beings who
look at the children and long for that which they cannot have: human love. Therefore, 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 (stanza 4, line 1-4). In these lines, there is an abrupt, drastic shift in the tone of the poem.
Suddenly, Annabel Lee catches a cold from a wind that blew out of a cloud. The speaker attributes the
reason for this cold to the covetousness of the angels. He explains that their feelings of jealousy were in
fact the reason thata wind blew out of a cloud, chilling my beautiful Annabel Lee. Annabel Lee has
been chilled, but the readers do not know if she has simply caught a cold, or if her body is cold and dead.
The relatives highborn kinsmen (stanza 3, line 5) of Annabel Lee were not supportive of their
marriage as well. They were so against it that they bore her away (stanza 3, line 6) from him,
referencing that she is dead and must leave. In the previous lines, the readers were left to wonder whether
chilled meant dead, or simply chilly and a bit sick. Now, the highborn kingsman has came and took
Annabel away from the speaker. The kingman could either be the one who had died before her and came
to take her soul to heaven, or that this kingsman was a living relative who came to take Annabel Lee away
in her sickness. Ultimately, the speaker is still left without his Annabel Lee and exceedingly mourns for
her every night, showing that she is still with him in his mind.