Anabelle Lee -Poe - Writers Forum

KarmaVictim · 09-01-2006, 12:06 AM

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 5 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; 10 With a love that the wingèd 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 15 My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsmen came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea. 20 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, 25 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, 30 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; 35 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 her sepulchre there by the sea, 40 In her tomb by the sounding sea.

My interpretation (and a few others I know besides) of this was that the narrator slept in his deceased lover's tomb every night. Did anybody else get that impression?

skeh · 09-06-2006, 02:49 PM

Yeah. Especially from the last few lines.

" And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea
In her tomb by the side of the sea."

It's a great poem btw.

KarmaVictim · 09-06-2006, 09:19 PM

Yes, it is (I love Poe--his writing anyway, he himself was a little creepy). Another Poe observation: he seems to be the most fun to psychoanalyze.

Off-topic(ish): I was compared to Poe the other day. The reasoning behind it didn't make sense, but I appreciated the comparison.

gigi · 09-06-2006, 10:02 PM

Annabel Lee represents his wife (so did Lenore). She claims they will be reunited. He is lying in wait - symbolically. And I like to think that he is worshipping her at the sea. But that could just be me. It does seem like he lies by her side, entombed.

You should post the poem in the original post.

KarmaVictim · 09-08-2006, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gigi

Annabel Lee represents his wife (so did Lenore). She claims they will be reunited. He is lying in wait - symbolically. And I like to think that he is worshipping her at the sea. But that could just be me. It does seem like he lies by her side, entombed.

You should post the poem in the original post.

Yeah, that did occur to me afterwards. I guess I might as well remedy that now.

EDIT: Oh, damn! Sorry about the spelling. I apologize if it iritates you, it sure as hell iritates me! (I guess I'm just anal retentive that way)

Corwin · 01-03-2007, 04:35 PM

I don't know whether he is implying he slept in he tomb or what have you, but I think that the middle, at least to me, is more interesting.

He says that the angels in heaven were jealous of true love, and so they saw fit to sever Annabel and he. Does he mean that literally? Does he think that because God envies humans and their capacity to love, true love will never survive? Or does he mean that love cannot occur because of an basic unfairness in the universe? Or, is it just a banal story, not having any deeper meaning at all? Will I ever answer a question, or will I just ask more in hopes that someone else will for me? Who knows?

Vanest · 03-13-2007, 04:45 PM

My English teacher once told me that Poe was accused of necrophilia. I don't know if it's true or if people just assumed that of him because of this poem. In any case, I loved this poem when I was younger and felt kind of taken aback when I learned it was supposed to be about necrophilism.

ratty_bjorn · 04-20-2007, 04:25 PM

Oh my god. I love that poem. Actually, when I was ten, I almost ended up reading it aloud at a wedding because I loved it so much. (It's probably a good thing that I didn't)

I never really tried much to interpret the poem, though. That's very interesting.