The Poem

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“Annabel Lee” is in some ways a simple ballad—that is, a narrative poem intended to be recited or sung. The first four lines of the six-line first stanza are written in the traditional ballad stanza form. The rhyme scheme is abab, the first and third lines have four metrical feet, and the second and fourth lines have three feet. The language, too, is conventional for a ballad. The poem begins: “It was many and many a year ago,/ In a kingdom by the sea.” This is the language of fairy tales, of beautiful princesses and their admirers, of great deeds and tragic consequences.

The poem is written in the first person, spoken by a man who was once the lover of “the beautiful Annabel Lee.” The story, as it unfolds through six stanzas of six to eight lines each, is a simple one.

When the speaker and Annabel Lee were young (“I was a child and she was a child”), they loved each other passionately “in a kingdom by the sea.” There is some evidence that the couple were actually married; at one point the speaker refers to Annabel Lee as his “bride.” So great was their love that even the angels, who were “not half so happy in heaven,” were envious of it. In their jealousy, the angels sent a chilling wind and killed Annabel Lee.

There are hints that it was not only the angels who disapproved of this courtship. The narrator reveals resentment of Annabel Lee’s “highborn kinsmen” who take her away after death. He also takes pains to point out that those who were “older” and “far wiser” than the young couple did not understand the strength of their love. The clear implication is that the speaker was not the social equal of Annabel Lee and that the families did not bless their union.

It seems that the speaker’s primary reason for telling his story is not to reminisce and enjoy again for a moment the pleasures of that great love. Instead, his purpose is to accuse those who tried to separate him from his Annabel Lee and to tell them defiantly that their machinations did not work. Although her death occurred “many and many a year ago,” their love has not ended. The narrator is still devoted to her, still dreams of her, still feels that their souls are united. He has remained true to her; in fact, he has literally never left her side. He says in the poem’s last lines that he spends every night lying next to her in her sepulchre by the sea.

The entire story is told in the words of Annabel Lee’s lover, with no omniscient narrator to offer guidance. The reader must decide, then, how to interpret that story. Edgar Allan Poe may have intended this as a romantic tale of young lovers who could not be parted even in death. Perhaps, however, “Annabel Lee” is the demented reflection of a madman.

Forms and Devices

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If “Annabel Lee” has become one of Poe’s most popular poems, its popularity is probably attributable to its haunting rhythm, its lulling repetition. Like many of Poe’s poems—and this is no slight to them—the sound is more significant than the thematic content. The story takes place “in a kingdom by the sea,” and Poe takes great pains to capture the sound of the sea in his poem. A wavelike cadence is suggested by the rhymes on the three-foot lines; all the shorter lines in the poem end with the same e sound.

The echoing of “sea,” “Lee,” and “me” throughout the poem is hypnotic. Like the sound of waves in the background, the reader gradually stops being aware of the repetitive sound but is stirred by it on a subconscious level. Internal rhyme also contributes to this wavelike rhythm. In phrases such as “can never dissever” and “chilling and killing,” the stressed syllables seem to receive a bit of additional stress because of the rhyme, and the effect is of regular, lulling pulses.

The poet uses the power of his rhythm to particular effect in stanza 5, where he breaks out of the established pattern of alternating three-and four-foot lines. In this stanza, he adds an extra three-foot line: “Of those who were older than we—/ Of many far wiser than we—.” The unexpected change in rhythm jars the reader out of a lulled, dreamlike state for a moment, so that the irony of these two lines is not missed.

The hypnotic rhythm operates on another level through the repetition of entire words and phrases. Variations of “in a kingdom by the sea” occur five times in this forty-one-line poem, and the name “Annabel Lee” occurs seven times. Key words appear a surprising number of times in such a short poem; for example, “love” occurs six times in the first two stanzas.

Within individual lines, the repetition is even more striking. Lines such as “But we loved with a love that was more than love” are almost numbing; the reader is not expected to pause over such a line and analyze its logical sense, but simply to experience the accumulation of “love” after “love” and derive meaning (perhaps “sensation” would be more accurate) that way.

The dreamlike feeling of this poem is further enhanced by the poet’s use of consonants that do not jar or explode, but rather glide smoothly. The poem is full of m, n, l, and s sounds, with very few harsh consonants. The only stressed word beginning with t, for example (excluding words beginning with th), is the dramatic “tomb” in the last line. The sound of the poem, then, is quiet, rhythmic, hypnotic. It is this haunting sound, not the story itself, that causes most readers to remember “Annabel Lee.”

Historical Context

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In 1849, America continued its westward expansion, and the addition of each new state reignited the debate between slavery proponents and reformers known as "Abolitionists," who aimed to end slavery. The slave trade evolved alongside the country's development during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Many settlers in the original thirteen colonies brought "indentured servants" from Europe. These individuals, typically from lower social classes, sold their freedom for a period, usually seven years, in exchange for passage to the new continent. From this practice, the concept of permanently enslaving people with different physical traits emerged as a seemingly natural progression.

Some colonies, most notably Virginia, experimented with using American Indians for slave labor. However, due to the violent confrontations that had occurred during the colonization process, European property owners never felt entirely comfortable keeping Native Americans as slaves. The Dutch, meanwhile, established a lucrative trade by selling captured Africans in the colonies and the Caribbean. Slavery was first legally recognized in the colonies in 1650, and by 1676, Dutch traders were selling 15,000 Africans in the Americas annually. Several factors contributed to slavery becoming a Southern institution. The slaves came from agricultural societies, and as the colonies grew, the South, with its warmer climate and fertile land, became more agricultural. In contrast, the Northern states developed manufacturing economies that required more training for slaves than was practical.

During the Revolutionary War era, the issue of slavery was fiercely debated. In 1768, the Mason-Dixon Line was established, marking the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland and creating a line of demarcation between the slave-holding South and the free North. The first American society dedicated to abolishing slavery was founded in Pennsylvania in 1775. Various states, including some in the South, passed laws banning the brutal slave trade, which was eventually outlawed nationally in 1808. However, these laws were largely symbolic, as there were already sufficient numbers of slaves in the country, reducing the need for further imports.

In Virginia, for instance, the number of slaves equaled the number of whites, while South Carolina had twice as many slaves as free whites. Slavery was deeply entrenched in Southern society, but Southern politicians felt the increasing pressure from Abolitionists to end the practice. To preserve their way of life, Southerners believed it was essential to ensure that slavery was accepted in as many new states as possible.

The early 1800s were characterized by territorial expansion, and each new state joining the Union sparked intense debates in Congress over the issue of slavery. Generally, the South remained slave-holding while the North stayed free, but fierce disputes arose over states near the border or west of the Mississippi River. A significant instance of Congressional decision-making was the Missouri Compromise in 1820. At that time, there were eleven slave states and eleven free states. When Missouri, a slave territory, sought statehood, Northern politicians demanded that it abandon slavery to gain entry. As a compromise, Maine, a free territory, was admitted as a state, allowing Missouri to retain slavery, and a new boundary line was established for future states from the Louisiana Purchase land. The next major boundary-setting event occurred in the 1840s. President Polk, failing to purchase land from Mexico, sent troops to the Southwest, igniting a war with Mexico. Following the American victory, Mexico ceded all land north of the Rio Grande, losing 35% of its territory and paving the way for new states. This heightened the conflict between Abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates, who felt increasingly threatened as the government deliberated over which new states, if any, would permit slavery.

The ongoing clash between those advocating for freedom and those defending their traditions intensified the debate over the fate of slaves escaping to free territories. Freed slaves began to play more prominent roles. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, published his autobiography and launched an Abolitionist newspaper, The North Star, funded by speaking fees from his tours in Europe. In 1838, the Underground Railroad, a secret network, was established to help escaping slaves find safe passage north to Canada. To ease the growing tension between the North and South, Congress passed a stringent Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, which increased penalties for escaping slaves and those assisting them. Free blacks in free territories could be arrested and enslaved if merely accused of being escapees, and those helping them could face imprisonment. Although the law was declared unconstitutional in 1854, the Supreme Court upheld it in 1857. When "Annabel Lee" was published, eleven years before the Civil War, the issues surrounding slavery and its legal and moral implications were deeply ingrained in American life.

Literary Style

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"Annabel Lee" is composed of six stanzas, each containing between six and eight lines. The poem employs repetition and rhyme to achieve a sense of unity and euphony, creating a pleasing musical quality. The recurring end rhymes "sea," "Lee," "we," and "me" serve to connect each stanza throughout the poem. The name "Annabel Lee" is mentioned at least once in every stanza, and the phrase "kingdom by the sea" appears frequently, contributing to the poem's cohesive structure. Repetition of key words within lines enhances the poem's melodious sound while also highlighting main ideas. For instance, in line 1, "many and many" emphasizes that a significant amount of time has passed since the speaker began mourning, an important detail for understanding the depth of the speaker's sorrow.

The poem's rhyme scheme starts simply with an ababcb pattern but becomes more intricate as the poem progresses, incorporating internal rhymes (rhymes within a line) and concluding with the pattern abcbddbb in the final stanza. The lines in this last stanza increase in both length and number. These techniques—an increasingly complex rhyme scheme and lengthening lines—allow the poem to build in dramatic intensity.

The primary rhythm used in the poem is the anapest. An anapest is a metrical foot consisting of three syllables, with the stress on the third syllable after two unstressed syllables. For example, in the first line, the first syllable of "many" and the word "year" are stressed after two unstressed syllables, as shown below:

It was ma / ny and ma / ny a year / a go.

The anapest rhythm generates excitement and climaxes, mirroring the poem's overall structural build-up. To introduce variation, the poem also incorporates iambic feet, which consist of pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, as seen in "ago" in the line presented above.

Compare and Contrast

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  • 1849: Two months following the publication of "Annabel Lee," Edgar Allan Poe was discovered in a Baltimore tavern, muttering incoherently. He was subsequently admitted to the hospital, where he passed away four days later.

    Today: Contrary to early biographers who suggested Poe was on a self-destructive drinking spree, modern historians believe his condition likely had a physiological origin, such as a stroke.

  • 1849: The previous year's gold discovery in California triggered a "Gold Rush" to the region. Seventy-seven thousand individuals, known as "49ers," flocked to California, traversing uninhabited plains and the Rocky Mountains. California mines produced $450,000,000 worth of gold.

    Today: California is the most populous state in the U.S., with over ten million more residents than the next most populous state, New York.

  • 1849: Walter Hunt invented the safety pin, adding to his list of inventions, which include the sewing machine and the disposable paper shirt collar. To settle debts, he sold the rights to the safety pin for $400.

    1942: A Swiss manufacturer created Velcro, a fastening device that joins two strips of cloth without the need for pins.

    Today: Although safety pins are still available, their use has significantly declined.

  • 1849: Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery and began her involvement with the Underground Railroad, a covert network that helped slaves flee to freedom in Canada. She made nearly twenty trips between the North and South, liberating three hundred slaves.

    Today: Harriet Tubman is celebrated as an American hero.

  • 1849: The Southern states first discussed secession in reaction to President Zachary Taylor's decision to allow Californians to vote on whether to permit slavery in their state upon joining the union. Ardent supporters of slavery saw this as a betrayal of the Missouri Compromise, which mandated that slavery be allowed below thirty-six degrees latitude.

    1860: The South eventually seceded from the United States, leading to the Civil War.

    Today: The United States is a prosperous and relatively harmonious nation, with no significant separatist movements.

  • 1849: The Women's Rights movement was gaining momentum in America. The first Women's Rights Convention took place in Seneca, New York, in 1848, followed by the first national convention in 1850.

    Today: Despite significant progress in the 1960s and 1970s, the Women's Rights movement has seen a considerable decline in popular support. Some critics argue it favors women at the cost of equality, while others believe the movement has lost its relevance.

Media Adaptations

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  • Dover Press Audio Thrift Classics released Listen and Read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" and Other Favorite Poems (1998) as both a book and an audiocassette.
  • Marianne Faithful performs "Annabel Lee" on the audio CD Closed On Account of Rabies: Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe (1997) produced by UNI/Polygram.
  • The Arts and Entertainment Network created the videocassette Biography: Edgar Allan Poe (1996).
  • Educational Insights, Inc. produced the book and audiocassette The Best of Poe (1999).
  • Caedmon (publisher) offers Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe (1955) on audiocassette, narrated by Basil Rathbone.
  • Michael Cain performs "Annabel Lee" on the audiocassette The Silver Lining: The World's Most Distinguished Actors Read Their Favorite Poems (1995) for BMP, Ltd.
  • Guidance Associates produced a videocassette, filmstrip, and teacher's guide titled Edgar Allan Poe and the Literature of Melancholy (1980).
  • Monterey Home Video released the videocassette Edgar Allan Poe: Architect of Dreams (1995).
  • A&E Home Video produced the videocassette The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe (1999).
  • GRJ Productions created the 16mm film Poe: A Visit With the Author (1968).

Bibliography and Further Reading

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Sources
Hammond, J. R. An Edgar Allan Poe Companion. Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble Books, 1981.

Kennedy, J. Gerald. Poe, Death, and the Life of Writing. Yale University Press, 1987.

Poe, Edgar Allan. Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry Tales, and Selected Essays, edited by Patrick F. Quinn and G. R. Thompson. Library of America College Editions, 1996.

Powys, John Cowper. "Edgar Allan Poe," in Visions and Revisions: A Book of Literary Devotions. G. Arnold Shaw, 1915, pp. 263-277.

Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988.

Rice, C. Duncan. The Rise and Fall of Black Slavery. Evanston, IL: Harper and Rowe, Publishers, 1975.

Saintsbury, George. "Edgar Allan Poe," in Prefaces and Essays, edited by Oliver Elton. Macmillan & Co., 1933, pp. 314-23.

Stovall, Floyd. Edgar Poe the Poet: Essays New and Old on the Man and His Work. University Press of Virginia, 1969, 273 p.

Wilbur, Richard. "Poe and the Art of Suggestion," in The University of Mississippi Studies in English, Vol. III, 1982, pp. 1-13, reprinted in Critical Essays on Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Eric W. Carlson. G. K. Hall and Company, 1987, pp. 160-171.

Further Reading
Buranelli, Vincent. Edgar Allan Poe, 2nd ed. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977. Buranelli's brief book provides an overview of Poe's poetry, prose, and criticism, offering a good general context but lacking in-depth analysis.

Carlson, Eric W., ed. The Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Criticism Since 1829. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1969. This collection features essays from critics spanning Poe's early works to the 1960s. Significant literary figures such as Baudelaire, Swinburne, Henry James, Dostoevski, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, Richard Wilbur, and others are included. Notably, it contains the infamous obituary by Reverend Rufus Griswold, under the pseudonym "Ludwig," which maligned Poe's reputation for years.

Dayan, Joan. "Amorous Bondage: Poe, Ladies and Slaves," in The American Face of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Shawn Rosenheim and Stephen Rachman. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, pp. 179-209. This scholarly essay explores the connection between slavery in the South, where Poe resided, and his portrayal of women in his love poetry.

Fletcher, Richard M. The Stylistic Development of Edgar Allan Poe. The Hague: Mouton & Co. Publishers, 1973. This book examines Poe's stories and poems together, particularly pairing "Annabel Lee" with the short story "Hop-Frog."

Murray, David. "'A Strange Sound, as of a Harp-string Broken': The Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe," in Edgar Allan Poe: The Design of Order, edited by A. Robert Lee. Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble Books, 1987. This essay challenges Poe's status as a late Romantic figure and a precursor to the Symbolist movement.

Porte, Joel. The Romance in America: Studies in Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and James. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1969. This is one of the most lucid and comprehensible works that places Poe in the appropriate context among other literary figures who are not always recognized as his contemporaries.

Stampp, Kenneth M. America in 1857. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. This book provides an excellent overview of the social climate in America two years before this poem was published, which is also the year Poe's wife, who is believed to be the inspiration for Annabel Lee, passed away.

Thomas, Dwight, and David K. Jackson. The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849. New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987. Offering an almost daily chronology of events in and connected to Poe's life from his birth to his death, this book is an essential resource for anyone interested in researching the poet.

Bibliography

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Burluck, Michael L. Grim Phantasms: Fear in Poe’s Short Fiction. New York: Garland, 1993.

Hoffman, Daniel. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998.

Hutchisson, James M. Poe. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005.

Irwin, John T. The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytical Detective Story. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.

Kennedy, J. Gerald. A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

May, Charles E. Edgar Allan Poe: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne, 1991.

Peeples, Scott. Edgar Allan Poe Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1998.

Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe, A to Z. New York: Facts On File, 2001.

Whalen, Terence. Edgar Allan Poe and the Masses: The Political Economy of Literature in Antebellum America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999.

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