It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me—
Yes!— that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we—
Of many far wiser than we—
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;
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling— my darling— my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea—
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Originally published in The Southern Literary Messenger (1849) by Edgar Allan Poe. Public domain.
Analysis
Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” (1849) is both a haunting elegy and a lyrical meditation on eternal love. Written shortly before his death, it distills Poe’s lifelong preoccupation with beauty, loss, and the persistence of emotion beyond the grave.
Beneath its simple ballad form lies a profound reflection on love’s power to transcend — and be corrupted by — death itself.
Love Beyond the Grave
At its heart, “Annabel Lee” is a poem about undying devotion. The speaker recalls his youthful love for Annabel Lee, “in a kingdom by the sea,” a setting that evokes both fairy tale innocence and isolation. Their love, described as pure and childlike, is so intense that it provokes cosmic jealousy: “The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, / Went envying her and me.” Poe transforms personal grief into myth, suggesting that such perfect love cannot exist in a mortal world without arousing divine envy.
Annabel Lee’s death is blamed on these angels, whose envy sends a “wind [that] blew out of a cloud, chilling / My beautiful Annabel Lee.” Yet even as she lies entombed, the speaker refuses to accept separation. His insistence that their souls are one — that “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” — turns grief into obsession. Love becomes not just remembrance, but possession beyond death.
Sound, Rhythm, and Repetition
Poe’s mastery of sound is on full display. The poem’s rhythm — primarily anapestic with moments of iambic variation — mimics the ebb and flow of the sea. Repetition reinforces both musicality and fixation: phrases like “kingdom by the sea” and “of the beautiful Annabel Lee” recur like waves of memory the speaker cannot escape.
This incantatory structure mirrors the speaker’s mental state. Each refrain both comforts and traps him, creating the sense of a mourner endlessly circling back to the same moment of loss. The rhyme scheme (ABABCB) and frequent use of internal rhyme lend the poem its songlike quality, transforming grief into melody.
The Sea as Symbol
The sea dominates the poem’s imagery. It is vast, restless, and eternal — a fitting symbol for both love and death. The “kingdom by the sea” evokes beauty and isolation, while the “sounding sea” by which the speaker lies beside Annabel Lee’s tomb suggests an unending dialogue between life and death.
The sea’s dual nature — calm yet menacing, nurturing yet deadly — mirrors the poem’s emotional tension. It embodies both the depth of the speaker’s love and the infinite sorrow of his loss.
Innocence and Idealization
Poe’s choice to describe the lovers as children emphasizes purity and idealism. Their love is “a love that was more than love,” untainted by worldly experience. Yet this innocence also heightens tragedy. Annabel Lee dies young, preserving her beauty forever, while the speaker’s fixation prevents him from rejoining the living.
This theme of frozen idealization runs throughout Poe’s work. Like Lenore and the lost Lenore of “The Raven,” Annabel Lee becomes an emblem of beauty preserved in death — perfect, because she can no longer change.
Beauty, Death, and Obsession
For Poe, beauty and melancholy are inseparable. He believed that “the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world,” and “Annabel Lee” embodies that ideal. The speaker’s love, once tender, becomes tinged with morbidity. His nightly vigils at her tomb suggest that the boundary between devotion and madness has dissolved.
The poem’s closing lines — “And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side / Of my darling — my darling — my life and my bride” — are simultaneously romantic and chilling. Love’s triumph over death is shadowed by the speaker’s descent into obsession. Poe’s genius lies in allowing both interpretations to coexist.
Personal and Universal Dimensions
Though inspired by Poe’s own life — especially the death of his young wife, Virginia Clemm — the poem’s emotional reach is universal. It captures the way grief transforms memory into myth and how the longing to preserve love can distort it. In “Annabel Lee,” love’s victory over death is also its undoing.
The poem’s blend of lyrical simplicity and emotional intensity has made it one of Poe’s most enduring works. Its cadence and imagery lodge in the mind like a lullaby, at once comforting and eerie — the sound of devotion echoing beyond the grave.
Conclusion
“Annabel Lee” stands as Edgar Allan Poe’s final masterpiece — a fusion of love song and elegy that transcends time. Its music, imagery, and emotional force embody his lifelong themes: beauty entwined with loss, innocence shadowed by death, and the persistence of passion even in decay.
In this “kingdom by the sea,” love endures, but at a terrible cost — it becomes eternal only by existing among the dead.