is apparent in lines 2, 4 and 6 with the words "sea," "Lee" and "me."Internal rhyme is found in the sixth stanza; note the use of "beams" in the middle of the line that rhymes with "dreams" at the line's end:

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams...

It occurs two lines later (using "rise" and "eyes") with:

And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes

Assonance is found in line 5 with the words "this," "lived" and "with." (The short "i" sound is the same.) Alliteration (the repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of a group of words) is found with the repetition of the words "many" (in line 1) and "loved" (in line 6).

In identifying figurative language, the reader first recognizes the use of imagery, used to create a picture in the reader's mind. Imagery is found, for example, in hyperbole.

Hyperbole is present in lines 11 and 12:

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

It can only be an exaggeration of the depth of their love to note that the angels covet it, for there is no way to know this for certain; however, the speaker is using hyperbole to show how deep and wonderful is the love the two share.

The reader sees it again in the lines:

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me—

The lines above almost seem paradoxical in their exaggeration. It is impossible, based upon our definitions/perceptions of angels, to believe that angels would envy anything on earth when compared to their heavenly existence. This is more evident in trying to conceptualize that the angels would envy the love of humans—especially to the point that they would send a chilling wind to kill the young woman—an evil act.

First used in the late 16th Century, "Once upon a time" has become a phrase generally associated with a fairytale. Often this kind of story has mystical or magical elements (magic beans, a fairy godmother, etc.). After using this introductory phrase, Poe continues establishing this mood with words such as "kingdom" and "maiden," which are also associated with these kinds of tales. Poe may well use this introduction to create a mood of something supernatural, i.e., something beyond our natural world. However, unlike most fairytales shared with youngsters before bedtime, this story goes beyond magical and becomes haunting, with its sad ending at the loss of Annabel Lee. 

If “Annabel Lee” has become one of Poe’s most popular poems, its popularity is probably attributable to its haunting rhythm, its lulling repetition. 

The lilting movement of the poem is yet another element of the poem that gives the reader the sense of being in a fairytale. Except for the tragedy of the speaker's loss, this might well serve as a bedtime story that would bring about easy sleep for the listener, as Poe creates a haunting story, very much like a melody, using sound and imagery to capture the reader's imagination.

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.”

Of the sounds and images employed, perhaps the use of hyperbole is figurative language that most easily convinces the reader that poetic license has been used in this poem. The presence of envious angels and chilling winds that can be directed by one's will allow the reader to grasp that some elements of the tale may be magical or like a fairytale—perhaps more so, giving us the feeling that the love between the speaker and Annabel Lee was so amazing that the earth could not contain it, the angels could not bear it and no one on earth (even those "older than we" or "far wiser than we") could ever hope to experience anything like it.

The most important form of figurative language used in "Annabel Lee" is a kind of repetition that is called epanalepsis--the repetition of a word or phrase at regular intervals.

The first stanza alone contains three examples of this device:

a) It was many and many a year ago;
b) That a maiden there lived who you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived...
c) she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

In the second stanza, Poe repeats the words child and love (3 times).

In the third stanza, Poe begins to repeat phrases that he had used in the second stanza: "this kingdom by the sea," and "my Annabel Lee" are both "borrowed" from Stanza 2.

These repetitions (and others like it throughout the poem) give the poem its song-like, almost childish quality.

This is one of my favorite poems of all time, and part of that is because of the literary techniques Poe weaves into each line, focusing the reader's attention on both the depth of his love for Annabel Lee and on the tone of despair he generates.

Look at the repetition within this line:

But we loved with a love that was more than love—
(Bold added for emphasis.)

The depth of the speaker's feelings are made clear with this quick, repetitive use of the word "love." It was more than love, deeper than any emotion he has ever experienced.

I also love the alliteration in this poem, particularly lines like this one:

To shut her up in a sepulchre

Poe intentionally crafts this line to repeat this hissing s sound, effectively silencing the reader's mind. It's easy to feel that the speaker is shushing the world, demanding silence for the memory of Annabel Lee.

The alliteration is also well-crafted in this line:

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,

The alliteration in this line brings attention to the fact that Heaven itself cannot offer the happiness that he and Annabel Lee shared. Their love was beyond even the glories of supernatural emotions.

The internal rhyme in the lines, particularly as the poem reaches its conclusion, particularly serve to demonstrate all that the speaker has lost through Annabel Lee's death:

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

This particular pairing is cold and final, reminding the reader that Annabel Lee has left the speaker forever.

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

Moonlight is often used as a spiritual symbol, and that is reflected in this line. The internal rhyme here reinforces the presence of Annabel Lee in the speaker's dreams; their spiritual connection is not broken in death.

The end of the poem fades out with shorter lines and that repetition of the s sound again, seeming to follow the speaker's despair as he closes with a whisper.

The first major literary element used in Poe's poem "Annabel Lee" is genre. The poem is written in the form that uses many of the conventions of the traditional ballad, including simple language, narrative content, frequent repetition, and a setting in a distant, romanticized past, removed from everyday life, as we see in the opening:

It was many and many a year ago,  
In a kingdom by the sea ...

The next major literary element found in the poem is stanzaic form. The poem is divided into six stanzas, ranging from six to eight lines in length. Rather than have a completely regular pattern of rhyme, Poe repeats a small group of rhyming words at the ends of three or four lines in each stanza. These words are: Lee, we, sea, and me. The meter of the poem is a mixture of iambs and anapests. 

The next major literary element is a combination  of hyperbole and metaphor, in which religious imagery is evoked by the use of images of seraphs, angels, demons, and Heaven in the description of their relationship.

My favorite example of alliteration in the poem is this one:

To shut her up in a sepulchre

This harsh repetition of the s sound (he could have chosen the word tomb instead for an entirely different sound effect) is almost a hissing. Therefore, you can hear the speaker's anger and sadness through the alliteration in this line.

You get that same sound in another favorite line of mine:

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

This line that links their very souls in an eternal bond uses that same s repetition to convey an angry and defiant strength in their unity.

Assonance is nicely woven into this line:

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

This imagery of the speaker's attempts to physically connect with his beloved Annabel Lee is given focus through this long i repetition in this line. The sounds are drawn out and extended, much as the nights are without his beloved.

Imagery that is important to the theme of the poem occurs at the end:

In her sepulchre there by the sea—
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Annabel Lee is forever separated from him, and he reinforces this image by renaming her resting place in these successive lines—first sepulchre and then tomb. This location of death contrasts with the imagery of the sea by which the tomb is located; the sea is forever changing and is often a symbol of hope. Nevertheless, the sea brings a sense of peaceful rest to the ending of both the poem and Annabel Lee's life.

The best metaphor in this poem is this one:

That the wind came out of the cloud by night

The wind didn't actually kill her, so it thus represents some illness that "chilled" her, or took her life.

Allusion can be found here:

With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.

This is a Biblical reference such as in Isaiah 6:2:

Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

Unlike typical angels, the seraphs in Heaven actually show themselves capable of envy in Poe's poem, contributing to the tone of shock and grief.

Some examples of imagery in the poem include: 

• "A wind blew out of a cloud by night" (line 15). This might be considered both a visual image (the picture of a cloud at night is easy to conjure) as well as an auditory image (we might hear the sound of the wind—a little spooky-sounding at nighttime).
• "the moon never beams without bringing me dreams" (line 34). The visual image of moonbeams is present here.
• "the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes" (line 36). Again, we get a visual image of the stars brightly twinkling in the night sky.

Some examples of alliteration include:

• "many and many" (line 1). The "m" sound is repeated.
• "love and be loved" (line 6). The "l" sound is repeated.
• "loved with a love that was more than love" (line 9).  The "l" sound is again repeated here.
• "To shut her up, in a sepulchre / In this kingdom by the sea" (lines 19-20). The "k" sound in sepulchre and kingdom is repeated.
• "The angels, not half so happy in Heaven" (line 21).  The "h" sound is repeated in half, happy, and Heaven.
• "Nor the demons down under the sea" (line 31). The "d" sound is repeated.
• "Can ever dissever my soul from the soul" (line 32).  The "s" sound is repeated.

One metaphor could be found in the speaker's description—"I was a child and She was a child / In this kingdom by the sea" (lines 7–8). It is unlikely that they were both children; rather, they were probably simply very young and innocent when they fell in love.

We might also read the line "And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes / Of the beautiful Annabel Lee" as a metaphor (lines 36-37). The speaker seems to be comparing the stars' brightness to the brightness of his beloved's eyes.

Stanza 1 has imagery of a magical kingdom, perhaps like the legendary King Arthur in England since "the sea" is mentioned.  Annabel Lee is also a legendary maiden: "[one] whom you may know." 

Other imagery:  The winged seraph in stanza 2,  wind, cloud, and sepulcher in stanza 3, and the demons down under the sea, brighteyes, nighttide, sepulcher/tomb in stanzas 5 and 6

Assonance: vowels a and o and long i in all stanzas; stanza 3 has the i sound: wind, this, highborn, kinsmen

Alliteration: stanza 1 with the repetition of the initial m in lines 2 and 3 l and b in line 6; the initial c in l. 7; l in line 8; lines 17 and 21 repeat h ; (here the h suggests wind) w is repeated in line 29; d in l. 31;s in ll. 32 and 39;s in lines 40 and 41. (You may wish to find more.)

The word child in line 7 denotes the youth of the lovers, and is a metaphor for the innocence of their love.  In lines 9-12, the relationship between the husband and bride is compared to a heavenly one:  "We loved with a love that was more than love..." The envy of angels, "winged seraphs" elevates this love.  In stanza 6 the moon and stars are compared to messengers. 

There are two allusions:"demons under the sea"-Greek myth of Andromeda threatened by a sea monster, but rescued by Perseus; "ever dissever" and "soul" -St. Paul's epistle to the Romans about nothing separating us from God's love.

The speaker says that Annabel Lee "lived with no other thought / Than to love and be loved by me." This is an example of hyperbole; hyperbole is an exaggeration or overstatement of the truth. It is unlikely that loving the speaker is the only thought Annabel Lee ever had. She must have thought of things like eating and sleeping, etc.; however, this hyperbole emphasizes how important the speaker's love was to her in her life.

The phrase "Of the beautiful Annabel Lee" is used as a refrain in the poem: refrain is the repetition of words, lines, or groups of lines. The repetition of this particular line emphasizes the speaker's obsession with his lost love and his remembrance of her beauty.

We see internal rhyme in lines like "For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams": beams and dreams rhyme. Or, in "And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes," rise and eyes rhyme. In the line, "And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side," tide and side rhyme. There is a rhyming couplet in the final stanza as well:

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling -- my darling -- my life and my bride[.]

Here, the final words of the lines rhyme -- side and bride -- and so this is a rhyming couplet (or group of two lines).

When scanning poems for rhyme and other literary or poetic devices, be sure to have a clear understanding in your head of what each device means.  For example, "connotation" refers to the body of ideas and images that are suggested by the use of a word.  In "Annabel Lee," Poe uses the phrase "winged seraphs" to describe the angels who "coveted" the love between the speaker and his lover.  Angels connote innocence and purity and "coveted" suggests the sin of jealousy.  So, the connotations in this line of "Annabel Lee" make the reader feel that the love between the speaker and his lover was ever pure and in great danger.

Use a guide for literary terms to find the definitions of terms that you need to know and then use strategies for scanning to find examples in Poe's (and other) poems.

Edgar Allen Poe's poem has several examples of both personification and consonance. Personification means attributing human characteristics to nonhumans, including animals, objects, or abstract concepts. Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds within words; it is contrasted to alliteration, which is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. Poe often combines alliteration with consonance.

The main instance of personification is the reference to Annabel Lee's "high-born kinsman," who represents death, as he took her and enclosed her in a "sepulchre" or tomb.

As the actions of the wind and the moon are also endowed with human agency, they are both personified. "[T]he wind came out" and killed her, while the moon brings the speaker dreams.

Consonance appears in combination with alliteration most strikingly in the "L" sound in that it both ends "Annabel" and begins "Lee." Instances of consonance with "L" include "blew," "child," "cloud," "chilling," "sepulchre," "angels," and "killing." It is emphasized near the end with

... my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

Poe also repeats the second of those lines twice.

Within "Annabel," Poe also has the "N" and "B" sounds. He begins the poem with consonance involving "N" in the repeated "many." In the first stanza it recurs in "maiden," "know," "name," "and," "no," and "than." Other notable uses include "angels," "kingdom," "wind," and "kinsman." Poe uses several other similar sounds in "kingdom" and "kinsman," adding to the poem's flow.

The "B" sound appears more often as alliteration in "by" and "beautiful," each used several times, but as consonance in "high-born" and "above."

Edgar Allen Poe uses many examples of assonance in his poem “Annabel Lee” to emphasize specific words and create different moods. Assonance is the repetition of the same vowel sound in two or more closely placed words within the same line. Assonance can also occur within the same word, such as “Annabel.”

The short a sound is repeated in the first line: “It was many and many a year ago.” This repetition stresses the weighty sounds of “many,” “a,” and “ago” to emphasize that the speaker’s story occurred long ago, far in the past.

The third line contains two examples of assonance: “That a maiden there lived whom you may know.” Two quick instances of the short a sound are juxtaposed in “that” and “a”; they then efficiently lead into the line's more important content—a “maid” that the reader “may” know. The repetition of the long a sound slows down the poem’s rhythm and emphasizes the titular young lady.

The fifth line contains two examples of assonance: “And this maiden she lived with no other thought.” The short sounds of i in “this” and “lived” convey an upbeat mood. The long o of “no” runs into the short o of “other” and “thought” to create a sense of ease.

The repetition of the short o sound in line 9 emphatically stresses the strong love shared between the speaker and Annabel Lee: “But we loved with a love that was more than love.” By line 15, however, the ou sounds in “A wind blew out of a cloud” stress a downturn in mood. “Out” and “cloud” emphasize coldness, a chill that causes Annabel Lee to fall ill.

By the time her relatives take her away, the poem becomes mournful. The repetition of the short u in line 19 underscores her entrapment in a tomb and her separation from the speaker: “To shut her up in a sepulchre.”

The speaker blames angels’ jealousy as the cause for the coldness that kills her. In line 22, he repeats the short e sound in his claim that they “went envying her and me.”

Nonetheless, their love is so strong that even death cannot separate them. He highlights this bond in the final stanza, which begins, “For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams.” The assonance of “beams” and “dreams” slows down the poem and stresses his faithful, nightly thoughts of his lady. Similarly, the repetition of the long i sound creates a thread that runs through the nearly final lines, emphasizing the tie that binds the speaker and Annabel Lee.

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride.

I am using the definition of consonance that says that it is when you use the same consonant sound in a bunch of words (more or less in a row).  The sound does not have to be at the start of the word like it does in alliteration.

There are a number of examples of this in the poem.  Here are a few:

• In the first couple of lines of the third stanza, we have this, was, reason, this, sea.  All of these have "s" sounds.
• Again, in the fourth stanza, you have was, reason, as, this, sea.  Again, lots of "s" sounds.

The poem “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe utilizes primarily dreamlike imagery to evoke a strong sense of fairy-tale ambiance. Poe does this to emphasize the ethereal and otherworldly passion that the speaker in the poem feels for his beloved—despite the fact that they are both very young (or perhaps because of it, bearing in mind that fairy-tales often depict how unrestrained children experience the world). As in many other Poe’s poems and stories and in keeping with the Romantic tradition, the narrative component serves mainly as framework for his contemplation on themes of devotion, loss, grief, and despair.

References to the “kingdom by the sea” and the love so great that it becomes the envy of “The angels, not half so happy in Heaven” inspire a sense of wonder and awe, while at the same time suggesting supernatural, even Biblical notions which are metaphors for the exceptional quality of feeling shared by the doomed, young lovers.

Obviously, the most figurative of all elements in the poem is the speaker’s conceit that his beloved has died because their love has caused jealousy of higher beings. Here Poe combines fairy-tale, myth, and Gothic motifs with the psychological desperation of a disturbed man who needs to find a profound reason for the loss of his love. In other words, by transferring his own emotions onto a figurative plain, the speaker himself uses hyperbolic metaphor for explaining away Annabel Lee’s death in terms that will make some sort of sense and offer at least a semblance of solace. Poe builds upon this need of the speaker to conceptualize further the poem’s leitmotifs into a dirge-like anthem. Thus, the figurative and largely fantastical frame of the poem becomes the vehicle for conveying not just the aforementioned themes but also the extreme emotions that the speaker expresses.

Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” ranks as one of the saddest, love poems in literature.  This was one of the last poems that Poe wrote and was even published after his death. His personal life speaks to the death of his own wife Virginia who had died two years before.  The poem is an intense, fascinating testament to an undying love.

Narration

The narration of the poem is first person point of view.  Poe’s narrator expresses his passion for this young girl who died to soon. The speaker laments this death and expresses his obsession about her.

Form

The form of the poem Poe begins with six stanzas. The stanzas include pairs of long and short lines. The most important aspect of the poem is the rhyme scheme.  The short lines always end with a word that has a long e sound or ee: sea, Lee, we, and me.

Language
The language of the poem offers an emotional experience.  The loneliness and sadness that pervade the poem express a lost love. Every thought and all the dreams he has -- everything has to do with this dead lover.

The language and imagery that Poe chose gives the poem a lyrical flow and strength of emotion.  “Annabel Lee” provides a story of a man and a woman who loved so much that the angels were envious of them.  Every thought and all of the speaker’s dreams have everything to do with the death of his love.

Carefully choosing the words that would evoke a dreamy fantasy atmosphere, the poet echoes his love repeatedly.  The poem takes place in a kingdom, suggesting chivalry and romance. The young woman is described as a child, a maiden, and his darling. Addressing her burial chamber, the word sepulcher is first used; however, later he calls her resting place a tomb which implies a more deathly, funeral ring.

Imagery

The imagery that Poe uses implies a light and dark mood.  When Annabel Lee was a child and the speaker and she were young, the poem takes a lyrical, almost happy mood. The mood becomes dark when she dies and the speaker is refused access to her by her kinsman. In the reader’s mind, the picture is clearly painted of the kingdom by the sea and the beautiful sepulcher built to hold her corpse. 

On the other hand, the narrator says he remains in a realm of light, for his soul and the soul of Annabel Lee are one. When Poe describes the angels who try to separate him from her after her death, he uses one of the most beautiful lines of poetry to denote that nothing will take them from each other:

And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soulOf the beautiful Annabel Lee—

Every thought and all the dreams he has -- everything has to do with this love that was lost.

This is a poem that cries to be read aloud to listen to the wonderful combinations of words and alliterative phrases that bring such strong emotions from the speaker to the reader. How much more can a man love a woman than to sleep with her dead body every night in her tomb!