In literature, imagery is the description of sensory experiences: it can, therefore, be visual (to describe a sight), auditory (to describe a sound), olfactory (to describe a smell), tactile (to describe how something would feel if touched), or gustatory (to describe a taste) in nature. When the speaker describes how "A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling / [his] beautiful Annabel Lee," he employs both visual and tactile imagery, as we can both see the cloud in our mind's eye and feel its chill. Then, when her

highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea,

the narrator uses a great deal of visual imagery: we can imagine the sight of Annabel Lee's fancy kinsmen, her sepulcher, and the kingdom just near the water. Again, we can see and hear the "wind [come] out of the cloud by night" as a result of the visual and auditory imagery, and we can see the "moon [. . .] beams" and the "stars [. . .] rise." In the final line, we can even hear the "sounding sea" as a result of the auditory imagery.

Poe employs repetition, rhythm, and rhyme to unify the poem and give it a musical euphony. Poe repeats the name "Annabel Lee" in every stanza. By repeating the phrase "kingdom by the sea" he also adds to the choral nature and structure of the poem. The anapestic rhythm adds to the suspense of the poem as it builds to its finale.