In the first stanza of the poem, we learn that the titular Annabel Lee was a maiden—a word that typically denotes a young and virginal woman—who only wanted to be loved by and to be in love with the speaker of the poem. In the second stanza, we learn that both she and the narrator were children, or at least quite young, during this era when they were in love with each other. They lived in a kingdom near the sea and loved each other so passionately and profoundly that the speaker calls it a "love that was more than love."

He believes, in addition, that the angels in heaven actually envied Annabel Lee and him because of their remarkable love for each other; he says that these heavenly seraphs "Coveted"—wanted for themselves—this incredible love. In the third stanza, we learn that a cold wind "blew out of a cloud," and this wind chilled Annabel Lee, killing her. He seems to believe that those angels are responsible for the wind that kills her (as he says in a later stanza).

The narrator describes her family as "highborn," and so it seems as though she must have been a young woman from a rich family, one of high status. Her kinsmen came to take her body away from the narrator and put it in a tomb, perhaps the family burial place.