Annabel Lee Analysis Essay

The loss of a significant other has to be one of the most traumatic experiences of a lifetime. As time passes, the loss may appear to the outside world to be minimized in the mind of the surviving spouse but often the appearance is misleading. The feeling of loss, never leaves, as there are moments of memories, small clips of time when a conversation is remembered or a time of intimacy is replayed like a video on a high definition screen. Often thoughts and words of comfort do mean so much more as we experience life after loss. I was first introduced to Edgar Allen Poe in high school and I fell in love with the words in his poem, “Annabel Lee.” Edgar Allen Poe’s “Annabel Lee” uses assonance, end rhyme scheme, and repetition to convey the emotional and physical loss of his love for Annabel lee. The theme of the poem is everlasting love. Poe writes the story of a lover in mourning for his significant other, whose name is Annabel Lee The poem consists of six stanzas, three stanzas of six lines each, one stanza of seven lines and two stanzas of eight lines each. The speaker’s emotional appeal is displayed by the second stanza, lines 1-7, which expresses the intensity of
Poe’s poem tells a story and has anywhere between 6-8 lines per stanza, a ballad has four poetic lines (quatrain) per stanza. The refrain in Poe’s poem is the repetition of “by the sea…me…Annabel Lee.” It is Poe’s rhyme scheme which is different than a ballad. The ballad rhyme scheme is ABAB versus Poe’s rhyme scheme of ABCBDB which creates the music of the poem. The poem does not have consistent metrical patterns but contains a mixture of patterns—trochee, iamb and anapestic. The anapestic meter in the first line of the 5th and 6th stanzas adds emphasis to the words “love” and “the moon.” Also, the 1st and the 5th line of the last stanza reflects an internal rhyme scheme, “…beams…dreams,” and “…night-tide…the