Discussion Topic

"Annabel Lee" explores the theme of love and its dynamics

Summary:

"Annabel Lee" explores the theme of eternal love. The poem portrays a love so powerful that it transcends death, with the narrator believing that even angels are envious of their bond. The poem suggests that true love is immortal and unaffected by physical separation or death, highlighting the enduring and spiritual nature of the narrator's devotion to Annabel Lee.

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How does "Annabel Lee" address the topic of love?

As is true of many of Poe's poems, "Annabel Lee" concerns the theme of lost love. In other words, love in Poe's poetry does not have a happy ending culminating in marriage—instead, it culminates in the loss or death of the beloved.

The narrator of "Annabel Lee" loves a young woman. In his mind, the love is requited, and the two were happily in love. One should note that this is the viewpoint of the narrator. Some readers might find that the phrase "I was a child and she was a child" has disturbing implications of pedophilia and the hyperbolic treatment of having no other thoughts than such love seems to border on a rather unhealthy obsession.

In the poem, the love of the narrator and Annabel Lee is so perfect that even angels were jealous. Due to this, two things happened: Annabel's kinsmen separated the two lovers...

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and Annabel died of a chill.

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What is the main theme of "Annabel Lee" and how does it relate to the dynamics of love?

Concerning Poe's "Annabel Lee," the enotes Study Guide on the poem lists three themes.  I'll list them for you and give a brief explanation of each.

  1. Memory and Reminiscing:  the "many and many years ago" suggests a great deal of time has elapsed since the speaker and Annabel Lee were in love.  This is central to the poem, because fond memories are often idealized versions of the real thing.  The speaker is probably not responding to an actual relationship, but to a false, inflated memory of the relationship.
  2. Death:  the speaker is faced with having to make sense of the world after suffering a permanent loss.  Notice that no natural cause is really given for her death--that would not be worthy of her.  Instead, the angels were jealous of the couple's happiness, and killed her out of envy.  The speaker attempts to make sense out of the randomness of disease.
  3. Class Conflict:  the poem features conflicts of age vs youth, humans vs. angels, and the speaker against Annabel Lee's "high-born kinsman," who, it is assumed, don't let the speaker take part in the funeral, or even see or visit the body. 
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In my opinion, the main theme of this poem is loss.  The speaker has lost the love of his life and is going to be sad for the rest of his life.

I think that there are not a lot of ups and downs in this poem -- just one big up and one big down.  The huge up is when they fall in love and she become his.  He says their love is so great the angels are jealous of them.

But then she dies.  And there surely cannot be much more of a down than that.  So it's not exactly ups and downs of love.  It's more like the "up" of being in love but then a big "down" of her dying.

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