Criticism And Symbolism In Poe's Annabel Lee

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“Annabel Lee” “Annabel Lee”, although a hard choice between Poe’s poems, is one of my favorite poems so I’ve chosen to write my essay on it. I’m a big fan of Poe, particularly his poems, especially Annabel Lee because it is one of his most dark and daring pieces. While Poe’s other works are very dark, this one has a more intense and beautiful dark feeling than the rest. Poe starts off the poem as a whimsical fairy-tale type setting in a “kingdom by the sea.” He continues with this theme throughout stanza one by calling Annabel Lee a “maiden”, hinting that she’s a young and probably attractive girl. Towards the end of the first stanza, the speaker informs us of the love him and Annabel Lee share and how it was the only thing that really mattered.
I thought of the sea as the most important and repetitive symbol in the poem. While the kingdom is a symbol of power of humans and the cruelty of humans than the sea paired with is must be the symbol or power of nature. Poe combines the two worlds with one simple phrase “kingdom by the sea”. In line 31 Poe mentions the sea for the first time without the kingdom, making it its own powerful entity. He mentions that it is filled with demons, demons that want to separate Annabel Lee and him. Now the imagery of the sea has become dark and cruel as well, making the sea more intense; we can picture a sea of demons, not water. The new imagery of the sea is what helps turn “Annabel Lee” into a dark and scary poem. As we can see, the sea parts everything together, the tomb that Annabel Lee rests in is conveniently placed by the water too. Poe uses alliteration of the s sound in sepulchre and sea to create an evil hissing sound, building rhythm in the poem. Finally, the sea is the last word of the poem, which is critical. Just as the sea parts everything together, it rounds the whole poem out an leaves us with a very daunting image of a lonely dark sea. Again, Poe uses alliteration in the phrase “sounding sea”, going with the mood we are left with a very open sounding sea that is mysterious and deadly, the most common themes of the

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