LITR 5535: American Romanticism
Student Poetry Presentation 2005

poetry: Poe, "Anabelle Lee," N 2671

poetry reader / discussion leader: Gina L. Pendola

Edgar Allan Poe, most critically acclaimed for “The Raven”, has been a major influence on modern American writers, credited with inventing the detective story and the gothic horror story. He paved the way for further exploration of the darker side of human nature and depiction of disturbed psychological states that exist not in the outside, everyday world, but in the inner, subjective realm of our nightmares. He was orphaned at a young age, struggled with severe alcoholism, buried his child-bride while barely a teen-ager, then ultimately died mid-life, wandering alone with “congestion of the brain”.

“Poe worked hard at structuring his tales of aristocratic mad-men, self-tormented murderers, neurasthenic necrophilia’s, and other deviant types so as to produce the greatest horrific effects on the reader.”

Annabel Lee is my favorite poem of all time, not merely for its beauty, but for its contrasting nature to what society has come to regard as the essence of

Edgar Allan Poe.

ANNABEL LEE

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.

She was a child and I 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 by night

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsmen 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 a cloud , chilling

And killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it 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 see the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the nighttide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,

In her sepulcher there by the sea---

In her tomb by the side of the sea.

To me, this poem illustrates the pure, untainted heart of Edgar Allan Poe before, and perhaps due, to his downward spiral into madness.

1. In how much do you contribute his environmental factors with the true nature of his soul?

Perhaps had it not been for his hardships do you think he may have been known as one of the world’s greatest Romantics rather than horrific story-tellers?

Writing more of these love-stories as opposed to the Raven? Had his parents and wife had a good life, would he still be tormented by alcoholism and such?

2. What elements of Romanticism can be seen in the poem?

Soul-mates, kingdom, cloud, angels, demons, moon,

stars, sea, life/death