Annabel Lee | Mrs. Osgood's "The Life-Voyage" and "Annabel Lee"
In this essay, John E. Reilly disputes the contention of Buford Jones and Kent Ljungquist that Frances Sargent Osgood's poem "The Life-Voyage. A Ballad" served as the model for Poe's "Annabel Lee."
Professors Buford Jones and Kent Ljungquist exercise more ingenuity than care in arguing that there are enough "internal parallels alone" to make Frances Sargent Osgood's "The Life-Voyage. A Ballad" a "probable model" for "Annabel Lee" [see "Poe, Mrs. Osgood, and 'Annabel Lee,'" Studies in the American Renaissance (1983)]. Noting that Poe must have been familiar with "The Life-Voyage" when he wrote "Annabel Lee," Jones and Ljungquist cite what they believe are five "parallels" between the two poems: 1) both contain the...
[The entire page is 1212 words long]
Join eNotes
The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:
Summary and Analysis – Themes – Characters – And much more...
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Related Topics
Tell a friend about Annabel Lee at eNotes.
