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Literary analysis for the poem annabel lee
Literary analysis for the poem annabel lee
Essay on the poem Annabel Lee
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Edgar Allan Poe draws people not only in his works, but his life. In many of Poe's most famous stories and poems, there are remnants of his childhood and past experiences. For instance, take Poe's poem “Annabel Lee.” This poem is clearly about Edgar Allan Poe and his relationship with Virginia Clemm, his deceased wife. Many similarities can be found between Virginia Clemm and Annabel Lee. To begin with, Annabel Lee and Virginia Clemm are both in a deep love with their partners. Also, both girls are described as young. Finally, the two both die and end up with their partners in their tombs.
As stated before, Annabel Lee is in a deep love. The poem states, “And this maiden she lived with no other thought / Than to love and be loved by me” (5-6).
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The poem explains, “And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side / Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride / In her sepulcher there by the sea—“ (38-40). Not only does this show how much the narrator needs his wife, but also how great the narrator's love for his wife must be. The narrator is willing to lie down next to his wife's rotting corpse just to be with her. He withstands the smell of the body and discomfort of lying in the compact space. This was Poe's version of what true love looks like after death. Ms. Tullo reports that Poe too got his true love after death scenario (np). When Poe died a poor man, his friends had little money to bury him. Instead of throwing him on the street, they pooled their money together to afford the digger. The digger reopened Virginia Clemm's grave, and buried Poe with her. Exactly like the narrator who would lie with his Annabel Lee, Poe got his Virginia Clemm even after death. This is too incredible to be a coincidence. Out of all the similarities between the poem and Poe's life this is by far the most striking. Ms. Tullo also said that this was the last thing Poe wrote before he died (np). Poe's death, still to this day is a mystery. He had disappeared in September of 1849 and was found in early October wandering delirious (Tullo np). Edgar Allan Poe had predicted his future burial. In conclusion, Edgar Allan Poe's experiences are laced throughout his works. The similarities between Annabel Lee and Virginia Clemm are incredible. Both girls were young and madly in love and in the end, conquered death. Death could not tear these girls from their love. Poe was buried with his Virginia and the Narrator lied with his Annabel Lee in her tomb. Death could not do Poe
In "Annabel Lee", a young man is mourning the death of a beautiful young lady. Even though the woman had died quite some time ago, the man is still in melancholy. He misses her terribly and constantly thinks of how she was she was tragically taken from him by the angels who were jealous of their love, and by her family who didn't think the he himself was capable of bringing her to her final resting place. He loved Annabel Lee more than anyother human can love another. The following quote tells the reader how much he loves her and shows that he would do anything for her, even if that means sleeping by her tomb, each and every night. "And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side of my darling, my life and my bride, in her sepulchre there by the sea, in her tomb by the side of the sea."
Within the first two stanzas of Poe’s “Annabel Lee” the speaker emphasizes the fairy tale era of the speakers relationship with Annabel Lee. In stanza one Poe uses many poetic elements to differentiate between reality and the speakers view of his and Annabel Lee’s relationship, making the story seem very much like a fairy tale. “That a maiden there lived whom you may know/By the name of Annabel Lee.” Through the diction of the line “That a maiden there lived whom you may know” Poe helps the speaker show the reader that the speaker sees Annabel Lee as more than Annab...
"And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side, of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride" (Annabel Lee) In his final, concluding words, the narrator finishes the poem in a light and sanguine tone as he explains calmly that he sleeps every night beside her tomb on the seashore. This detail reveals the extent of his obession upon her memory and causes one to imagine that his largely sweet and innocent account of pure love actually harbors an unstable mind. Even though she is dead, he still cannot let go of her memory. This poem reflects Poe himself, his life, and his loss of a loved
Edgar Allan Poe is a very well known short stories author as well as a poet in the 1800 and even now. He has written many short stories, and all of these stories always has a deeper meaning to what he’s saying. This makes the readers think more than they normally would in other short stories and also make it so that the reader can find out more about it indirectly. His life had never been a normal happy life. He was in the same room with his brother when his mother died. He was there for two days with the dead body of his own mother which must have brought on trauma. It seems like he was also used to the concept of death to lead him to write such stories. Some short stories that will be analyzed are The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Oval Portrait. Edgar Allan Poe’s childhood affected his style which led him to write about sadness and heartbreak. Because Poe’s wife had died of tuberculosis, he became very sad and used drugs and alcohol to overcome his loss. What made him even more depressed was the fact that the day before Virginia, Poe’s wife, had passed away, he had written a letter to his aunt saying that there was no sign of her getting better but she’s not dead yet. This event in his life must have given him the idea to include women in his stories.
Some believe that Annabel Lee was written for his wife, but others think that the love of his life, Sarah Emira Royster, that he was parted from as a youth of 18, was the true recipient for the beautiful but morbid poem. . Mr. Poe was scheduled to wed the same Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton just days before his death. “The significance of “Annabel Lee” to their relationship may, however, be reflected in the account of his desire to have it published for the first time with their wedding announcement in the local papers. Since Poe died just ten days before they would have been married, the poem was instead first printed at the end of his obituary written by Rufus Griswold in the New York Daily Tribune” (Poe Museum)
Edgar Allan Poe’s poems The Raven, And Annabel Lee Contrast in many different ways but i'll be highlighting three of them in this paper.The mood of these poems is sad because their true loves die in very different settings and how they handle the grief is different from one going totally insane to the other man being calm and almost a little light hearted about it.
Poe was born into a family of professional actors. He experienced death at an early age when his parent died before he was three years old. John and Frances Allan raised Poe as a foster child in Richmond. John Allan gave Poe excellent schooling opportunities. Though he never finished college, Poe became very successful by using his life experiences to write dark, twisted literature that appealed to adults ("Edgar Allan Poe"). The last of Poe’s poems to be published was “Annabel Lee.” It is thought to be inspired by his late wife Virginia (Johnson). In this poem the speaker mourns the death of his young bride, Annabel Lee. His loss encourages him to proclaim that jealous angels caused Annabel Lee’s death to separate the young couple. The speaker reveals that he has not been able to accept their separation and has been spending night after night at her tomb (Johnson). The use of figurative language further establishes the theme of jealousy. Poe uses personification of the wind to explain the death of Annabel Lee ("Overview: 'Annabel Lee'."). The “chilling” wind is what takes Annabel Lee away from the speaker (Poe Line 26). The article "Overview: 'Annabel Lee'" states, “A chilling wind emerges from the sky, and so her death is tied to heaven and the jealousy of the angels” ("Overview: 'Annabel Lee'"). Poe uses imagery to refer to the jealousy the angels have for the speaker and Annabel Lee’s love. Poe states, “The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, /Went envying her and me” (Poe Lines 21-22). This imagery that the angels are not happy in Heaven further emphasizes the extent of their jealousy. The double naming of Annabel Lee’s burial chamber is a metaphor to allow the theme of death to overshadow the theme of love. This is able to show that their love can conquer the grave and overcome the jealousy from the angels("Overview: 'Annabel
Poe was likely influenced by the death of his wife, his gloomy childhood, and Tuberculosis. To begin, Poe may have been influenced by his wife’s death to write “Annabel Lee.” First, Poe loved his wife Virginia very much and they lived a good life. Similarly, the narrator in “Annabel Lee” was in love with Annabel and they were very happy together. In addition, Poe’s wife Virginia died of Tuberculosis at a young age. Likewise, Annabel died at a very young age by “the wind chilling her.” Therefore, the death of Virginia, Poe’s wife, influenced him to write “Annabel Lee.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was born to traveling actors in Boston. He was hit hard with death at a young age as his mother and father both died within two days when Poe was only two years old. The wealthy John Allan and his wife became the legal guardians of young Edgar. When Edgar was fourteen, he met the first woman in his life, Jane Stith Stanard, the inspiration to his poem “To Helen”(1831). However, Mrs. Stanard passed away only a year after Poe first met her. In 1825 Poe became engaged with Elmira Royster. While he was away from her, he would write her many letters; however, Elmira’s parents intercepted the letters. Edgar wondered why she never replied, and when he went back to see her, he found out that she married someone else. This left Poe in a very depressed state. Poe’s relationship with the Allans was never secure, and this became evident when John Allan refused to pay Edgar’s debts at the University of Virginia. Edgar was then kicked out of school. In the next couple of years Poe has to fight through the death of his foster mother and his brother. Then in 1833 he moved in with his Aunt Maria Clemm. John Allan died a year later. He then married his cousin Virginia three years later. Virginia then died in 1842 (Anderson 9-64). Poe was introduced to death and betrayal throughout his young life leaving him in a very depressed state, and these traits are present throughout his short stories and poems.
Most people agree that Edgar Allan Poe wrote "Annabel Lee" about his departed wife, Virginia Clemm, who died of tuberculosis two years earlier. Some critics, however, contend that in the seventh line of the poem he states, "I was a child and she was a child," and he certainly was no child in 1836 at twenty-seven when he married his thirteen-year-old bride. Maybe the poem is about an earlier love, or perhaps it is purely fictional, but addressing Annabel Lee as his "life and [his] bride" in line thirty-eight and writing it two years after his beloved young wife's death, it is seems logical that it is indeed written about her and is simply embellished with a bit of poetic license.
Throughout Edgar Allan Poe’s life, death was a frequent visitor to those he loved around him. When Poe was only 3 years old, his loving mother died of Tuberculosis. Because Poe’s father left when he was an infant, he was now an orphan and went to live with the Allan’s. His stepmother was very affectionate towards Edgar and was a very prominent figure in his life. However, years later she also died from Tuberculosis, leaving Poe lonely and forlorn. Also, later on, when Poe was 26, he married his cousin 13-year-old Virginia, whom he adored. But, his happiness did not last long, and Virginia also died of Tuberculosis, otherwise known as the Red Death, a few years later. After Virginia’s death, Poe turned to alcohol and became isolated and reckless. Due to Edgar Allan Poe’s loss of those he cared for throughout his life, Poe’s obsession with death is evident in his works of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Black Cat”, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”, in which in all three death is used to produce guilt.
Stanza five paints a picture that their love was stronger than anybody’s ever was on land or sea, and that nobody can take the writer away from his love: this is supported by the speaker making the statement “ but our love was stronger by far than the love of those who were older than we” (Poe 609), and “ neither the angels in heaven above, nor the demons down under the sea, can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee” (Poe 610). The last stanza is very grim when it states “I lie down by the side of my darling… In the sepulchre there by the sea” (Poe 610). It paints a gross picture that the speaker loved Annabel Lee so much that he was willing to lay next to the body of her dead corpse, not letting death take her away from him. The imagery in the last two stanzas support the message of the
The diction of “Annabel Lee” helps create the impression of a fairy tale-like love story. With words such as “maiden” (line 3), “kingdom” (line 8), “beautiful” (line 16), “high-born kinsmen” (line 17), Poe paints a picture of a whimsical, fantastic love story when, in reality, Annabel Lee dies in her girlhood. This is wherein lies the irony: the glamorization of the persona’s love of Annabel Lee
It can be concluded that the speaker is a caring and loving gentleman. The narrator of the poem is a young gentleman whom can also be perceived as Edgar Allan Poe himself. “That a maiden there lived whom you may know/ By the name of Annabel Lee” (line 3, 4). The poem is about a person loving a woman; therefore it is positively obvious and apparent that the narrator is a gentleman. There are also repetitions of the words “I” and “my” throughout the whole poem, which confirms that the narrator is in fact Edgar Allan Poe himself. “And, so all the night-tide, I lie down by the side/ Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride” (line 38, 39). The use of the words “I” and “my” supports the theory that the person narrating the poem is Edgar Allan Poe. It is also visible that the speaker is very sad and emotional about the loss of his wife. The narrator is having a difficult time getting over the death of Annabel Lee which is apparent in the last stanza. He still sleeps by her even though she is
Poe was an American poet who contributed many great pieces of literature to our society. His works illustrate and portray a realm of both paranormal and morbid beauty. In each poem usually lies a demonic undertone, that frequently summed up to a type of conclusion that can in one way or another pertain to h is life’s reminiscences. A common choice of topic for Poe was his love for his wife Virginia, who tragically died of tuberculosis. His poems that revolve around her, more often then not, contain a tone of sadness, loneliness, and despair. In both "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee" he makes reference to her as the long lost Lenore. Whether it was a way for him to idolize, or recollect on his memories of her he always seemed to do it in a haunting and surreal way.