Edgar Allen Poe's Annabel Lee

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Recommended: Literary analysis on Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allen Poe's Annabel Lee Everyone dreams of their one true love, the love that they can't live without. The one person who makes their life whole and/or complete and the person who makes them feel like no matter how bad things get everything will be okay as long as they have each other. In the poem Annabel Lee Edger Allen Poe writes of such a love, a love so deep that even the "the angels not half as happy in heaven went envying her and me." Poe's use of a combination of anapestic and iambic meter, along with a poetic diction that creates a fairy tale like realm between he and his love makes the readers of Annabel lee see and image of enduring love and creates a poetic masterpiece.

Poe opens the poem letting his readers know that what he is about to tell you happened "many and many a year ago", which makes one wonder how well he could remember something that happened such a long time ago. In the second line Poe goes on to state that what happened occurred in "a kingdom by the sea". When putting the first and second lines together it reminds one of the classic fairy tales opening "Once upon a time in a faraway land", which very well could suggest that maybe Poe is embellishing the truth in order to capture the readers' attention and create an entertaining and touching poem. Poe cont...

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... instead Poe takes it one step further and gives the poem the ending of the classic love story between Romeo and Juliet. Poe states that he tried to go on without his Annabel lee but "the moon beams me memories of my beautiful Annabel lee". Even though Annabel Lee is dead he still thinks of her and "feels her bright eyes" even though the stars never rise. The night reminds him of his beautiful Annabel Lee so he goes to her sepulcher and "lies down beside of my darling, my darling, wife, my life, my bride, in her tomb there by the sea." With the end of the poem you might believe that poe himself has layed down and died next to his beautiful Annabel Lee. Which brings us back to the classic romantic fairy tale theme of Romeo and Juliet.

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