Discussion Topic
Poetic Form and Structure of Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee"
Summary:
Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" is a narrative poem with characteristics of a ballad, featuring a melancholic tone. It consists of six stanzas with varying line lengths and an irregular rhyme scheme, emphasizing the repetition of "B" lines, such as "sea" and "Lee." The poem is a tribute to lost love, using a first-person speaker to express deep emotion through techniques like internal rhyme and meter. Despite its narrative style, it functions as an elegiac memorial to Annabel Lee.
What is the form of the poem "Annabel Lee"?
“Annabel Lee” is a ballad, a narrative poem that was designed for recitation or singing. The poem has six stanzas, each having six to eight lines. In the first stanza, which has six lines, the first four lines use traditional ballad stanza form. In the ABAB rhyme scheme, Lines 1 and 3 have four metrical feet, and Lines 2 and 4 have three feet. The poem uses a first-person speaker who is a heartbroken man. Stanza 5 has a different structure, with an additional extra three-foot line; altering the rhythm draws the reader’s attention.
The rhyme and rhythm contribute to the overall imagery of a story set “by the sea.” The short lines rhyme with “sea,” ending with long E, such as “Lee” and “me”; in the three-foot lines, these rhymes take on a wavelike cadence. Edgar Allan Poe also extensively employs internal rhyme, adding to the sea-like...
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sound: examples are “never dissever” and “chilling and killing.”
Would "Annabel Lee" be considered a ballad or a lyrical narrative poem?
Actually, “Annabel Lee” is an elegy in memoriam of Annabel Lee, but it is also a famous example of romantic poetry because it is a piece of literature written by the poet in meter or verse expressing various emotions by the use of a variety of techniques including metaphors, similes and onomatopoeia. Emphasis is on the aesthetics of language and the use of techniques such as repetition, meter and rhyme are what are commonly used to distinguish Romantic poetry from Romantic prose.
The poem has characteristics of a simple ballad, particularly the first four lines of the poem, which follow the abab format and the lines have alternating three and four stress lines (called "ballad meter").
It has a sing-song quality to it and tells a story -- two characteristics of any ballad. The rhyming scheme is fairly simple and repeated as well.
In the fifth stanza, Poe breaks out of the 3/4 foot lines, when he adds an extra three-foot line:
“Of those who were older than we—
Of many far wiser than we—.”
Given these characteristics, I think you could safely say it could be considered a ballad.
How is Poe's poem "Annabel Lee" structured?
Poet Edgar Allan Poe penned "Annabel Lee" in 1849, referring to the poem (which was most likely inspired by his deceased wife, Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe) as a ballad; despite this claim, the iconic poem is not a ballad, although it contains the same melancholic tone that is characteristic of ballads.
The poem consists of six stanzas with varying numbers of lines:
The first two stanzas contain six lines each.
The third stanza contains eight lines.
The fourth stanza contains six lines.
The fifth stanza contains seven lines.
The sixth stanza contains eight lines.
The poem also has a varying rhyme scheme, which I have charted for you below in bold:
It was many and many a year ago, (A)
In a kingdom by the sea, (B)
That a maiden there lived whom you may know (A)
By the name of Annabel Lee; (B)
And this maiden she lived with no other thought (C)
Than to love and be loved by me. (B)
I was a child and she was a child, (D)
In this kingdom by the sea, (B)
But we loved with a love that was more than love— (E)
I and my Annabel Lee— (B)
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven (F)
Coveted her and me. (B)
And this was the reason that, long ago, (G)
In this kingdom by the sea, (B)
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling (H)
My beautiful Annabel Lee; (B)
So that her highborn kinsmen came (I)
And bore her away from me, (B)
To shut her up in a sepulchre (J)
In this kingdom by the sea. (B)
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, (F)
Went envying her and me— (B)
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know, (G)
In this kingdom by the sea) (B)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night, (J)
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. (B)
But our love it was stronger by far than the love (E)
Of those who were older than we— (B)
Of many far wiser than we— (B)
And neither the angels in Heaven above (K)
Nor the demons down under the sea (B)
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul (L)
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; (B)
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams (M)
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; (B)
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes (N)
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; (B)
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side (O)
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, (O)
In her sepulchre there by the sea— (B)
In her tomb by the sounding sea. (B)
As you can see, this rhyme scheme is quite irregular, which makes sense since it is one of Poe's own devising. The syllables per line vary wildly and also do not have a particular pattern, so you will definitely have creative freedom in the writing of your own poem there. I would focus on replicating the rhyme with a focus on the repetition of the "B" lines, as they are the most prominent component of the poem. You may want to also echo the shifting refrain that Poe has included; in other words, the repetition of "beautiful Annabel Lee" in various permutations. Do this while making the poem sound elegiac and like a tribute to a love one, and you should find this assignment fairly simple!
Is "Annabel Lee" by E.A. Poe a ballad or a narrative poem from a stylistic point of view?