Analyzing Edgar Allan Poe's 'Annabel Lee'

Natasha Van Den Eeckhout
Ms. Murphy
ENG 4U1
March 2nd 2012
“Annabel Lee” Boston Massachusetts in 1809 had a population of 472, 040 (Massachusetts 19th Century. Wikipedia). One of those people born on January 19th was the long-time famous poet, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe had composed his last poem “Annabel Lee” May of 1849 (Annabel Lee. Wikipedia). The poem’s narrator describes his love for a woman named Annabel Lee. The characters in the poem were young but their intense love for each other was so profound that angels were envious. The narrator goes on to believe the seraphs (three winged angels), caused her death. Even so, the narrator’s love is strong enough to extend beyond the grave. Every night, he dreams of Annabel Lee and refers
This was five months before he died (October 1849). In my own opinion I believe that this poem had no direct audience but was more of a good-bye letter to the world. That the pain of his existence without his wife Virginia had grown too much over too long of a time. He confided in the world with this poem, about how separated from his wife he felt and how difficult and lost he felt in life. All he thought about was her, how irrational life felt without her and that all he wanted to do was lie beside her and fall asleep, to be with her forever. He continuously tries to back up his claim that him and the character Annabel Lee are forever in union (Stanza 4 and 5). In a modern society, people would interpret someone lying beside a sepulchre as a trace of necrophilia, but through poetry and the genre of gothic romanticism, this is a sign of true undying love. Another reason why I think there is no direct audience is because the narrator almost seems like he is talking to himself trying to rationalize his thoughts to accept the death of his beloved. That he is not talking to anyone in particular or even referencing to a reader. There is no obvious intention to give the reader some understanding of the plot, setting or situation. Just a cluster of stanza’s with a continuation of feelings towards the death. Poe is trying to talk himself out of the separation anxiety and desperate loneliness he is feeling. Thus, no direct
His desperation and irrational thoughts led to his seclusion in an abnormal reality, a reality of just him and his love. This poem was written for himself, to try and rationalize the event. There is no doubt that when people read this poem they reacted to the deformed reality of the final stanza of how much pain the narrator is going through. The poem is written high stylized and in some rhyme. A masterpiece of gothic romanticism of the death of a beautiful woman by the famous Edgar Allan Poe in his own words “The death, then, of a beautiful woman is unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.” I only hope that the composition of writing this poem brought him peace of mind. For the rest of us readers, this is poetry at its finest, my condolences to Poe, but tragedy makes a good story. Poe will forever be a famous honest writer and poet, but in my eyes after reading this poem, he is just another young person trying to get answers from the obscurities of