The poetic ballad ‘ANNABEL LEE’ by Edgar Allan Poe tells the tragic tale of two adolescents, bonded by their true love, even through the grave. In this poem, Poe recounts his love story with Annabel Lee, from their childhood moments to the second she dies of a strong gust of wind, caused by the seraphs of heaven. Throughout the poem, Poe uses the poetic principles of “heresy of didactic” and the “unity of effect”, which he himself created, in order to evoke the reason of there being both virtue and evil in everybody, and the idea of how love can transcend death. The author forms these concepts through symbolism, repetition, and a rhythmic meter, among other literary techniques, to convey the capability of love and harsh realities of human existence. ‘ANNABEL LEE’ is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most renowned and admired works, but it is also his last piece, making the significance and ideas of this poem even more profound to understanding how much exigence love can prevail even through the draftest of times.
When considering the concepts of sin and merit, Poe connects the purity of his and Annabel Lee’s young love to the rancor of the seraphim angels, through the technique of italicization. These concepts of purity and immorality are inherent when Poe delineates that he and Annabel Lee were both very young when they first fell in love. The narrator says,
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; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me. (7)
Poe uses italicization to stress that they were both still children when they first met, through the placement of italics on the words, ‘I’ and ‘she.’ Poe makes the distinctive choice of not saying ‘we’ when referring to them both being children, but instead reiterates that they were kids twice, to draw an emphasis to their youth. This stress of the word illustrates the notion that their young love was pure and sinless, unlike the seraphs of heaven who are demonized to be immoral. The objective in this connection to the seraphim angels, is to use the “heresy of didactic”, which emphasise the flaws of humanity, in that their is iniquity in even the purest and most virtuous of beings, such as the seraphim angels, who are the highest order of angels in Christianity.
Examining the message of purity and immorality even further, Poe also uses rancorous diction to portray the seraphs as devious creatures, whose only true intentions were to take the life and love of Annabel Lee. This malevolent depiction of the seraphs is visible when the narrator expresses how much he treasured his Annabel Lee. Poe says,
“With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me.”
The word “coveted”, carries a double face containing of both desire and envy, connoting that the angels were not only jealous of the narrator and Annabel Lee’s relationship, but that they greatly yearn to possess that love. In Poes story, the seraphs are treacherous in their nature, which elucidates as to why they were so cruel in killing Annabel Lee. The term “Coveted” is what truly separates these seraphim from good to evil, as they chose to act on cruelty and envy by taking Annabel Lee away, instead of using their own sinless power of protection to keep the narrator and Annabel Lees love forever. Although the word “Coveted” expresses the angels’ veracious objective in killing Annabel Lee, it also can show the small, but notable, sense of humanity that the seraphim had left in them, through their desire to feel love of their very own, as human connection is the one thing that these angels can never have, buy may always yearn.
One other cardinal choice in the story is the mixed use of anapests and iambs, which are applied to create an irregular meter. This rhythmic meter is used as a metaphor to depict the instability of the narrator’s mind, and of the seaside where his and Annabel Lee’s love first developed. It is discernible that this rhythmic meter represents the seaside, through the last lines of the poem, when the narrator is describing his plan to rejoin Annabel Lee by entering her sepulcher, which is down by the sea. The narrator says,
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling–my darling— my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea. (38)
The connection between the beating meter and the sea is visible through his words, “the sounding sea.” The term ‘sounding’ refers to both the rhythmic ballad that the meter emanates, and the unstable noise of the tidal waves as they crash in this, “sounding sea.”
When considering the idea that the anapests and iambs of the meter represent the seashore of his home, the author uses repetition to further illustrate this claim. This repetition is visible throughout the poem, but the last and most prominent time that it is seen is in the fourth stanza, when the poet is describing how Annabel Lee was killed by a cold wind. He says,
Yes!— that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by the night, Chilling and killing my ANNABEL LEE. (23)
The author repeats the phrase, “In this kingdom by the sea” four times, once in each stanza, up till the fourth stanza when he says it for the last time, right before Annabel Lee dies. The connection that this phrase contains between the anapests and iambs, is that like the meter, this phrase is consistently used throughout the poem to represent the poet’s grief. However, unlike the meter, the repetition of the phrase, “In this kingdom by the sea”, does not represent the narrator’s distress from the loss of his love, but instead is a metaphor for the felicity that he associated with his home, before Annabel Lee’s death. The poet equates his home to happiness, since it was in this, “kingdom by the sea” where he first met Annabel Lee, and it was in this same, “kingdom by the sea” where they were forced to part ways by death. This is the reason why the poet makes the distinctive choice to stop repeating the phrase, “In this kingdom by the sea” right before she dies, since he can no longer see his home as a rejoiceful place.
The last words of ‘ANNABEL LEE’, are the most soulful and significant lines of the poem. The narrator begins the last stanza by comparing Annabel Lee’s beauty to a vision of the night sky. The poet says,
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE;(34)
The first four lines frame the stanza to be the narrator’s goodbye to the world and his life, as he can no longer bear the thought of being apart from Annabel Lee. This sorrowful sense of closure is first evident in the symbolism of his words, “stars never rise”. The phrase expresses how his world has gone dark and bleak without Annabel Lee in it, since she was the bright light and love of his life, and she was the ‘stars’ who guided him through these dark nights. By making a connection to the darkness that now is his life, the narrator slowly starts to realize that the only way out of his desolation is death.
Once Poe comes to the conclusion that their transcendental connection is no longer enough, he visits Annabel Lee’s grave down by the sea, in order to find the true reconnection and understanding that he is looking for. Poe says,
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling– my darling– my life and my bride In the sepulcher there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.(38)
Those following lines signify that once he went to her graveside, and was able to feel and see her in close proximity, he understood that he wouldn’t be able to bear the torment of leaving her behind.
Accepting his fate, he brings an end to his own life, being swallowed up by the night-tide of this “sounding sea”. Such a “sounding sea” is a final symbol of the narrator and Annabel Lee’s love story, since it was in “this kingdom by the sea” where their love first began, and it was in this same sea where their story died, as the narrator got carried away by the tidal waves. It’s not confounding that the poet chose to end his life in such a way, since where else could he be embraced into the depths of the sea of his great love story.
By: Ela Aspegren
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