Student Question
How did the angels react to the love between the speaker and Annabel Lee, according to the speaker?
Quick answer:
In "Annabel Lee," the speaker claims that the angels in heaven were envious of the profound love he and Annabel Lee shared. This envy led the angels to send a chill wind that caused her death. Despite her passing, the speaker insists that neither the angels nor demons can separate them, as their souls remain united in his dreams. The angels' jealousy underscores the intensity and purity of their love.
In the poem "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator tells that, long ago in a kingdom by the sea, he and a maiden named Annabel Lee had a profound love for each other. The poet claims that their love was so intense that the angels in heaven reacted by becoming envious of it. The poet writes this first in the second stanza:
With a love that the winged seraphs in Heaven
Coveted her and me.
He repeats the thought in the fourth stanza:
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me -
The narrator goes on to explain that, because of this envy, the angels sent a chill wind out of a night cloud that killed Annabel Lee. Her relatives then closed her dead body into a sepulchre—which is a type of—beside the sea. Finally, the narrator says that neither the angels in heaven nor the demons under the sea can separate him from Annabel Lee because their souls reunite when he dreams of her at night.
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