Samantha Rowe Mrs.

Mazany AP Literature & Composition C 20 March 2014 Poetry Analysis: Annabel Lee Poetry is typically described today as a quality of beauty and intensity of emotion displayed by words. It is a form of art in which many people choose to use to help express emotion incapable of being described through actions or feelings, rather, need to be displayed in a different way in order to completely comprehend its meaning. Many poets turn to poetry to send a message to readers. These messages sent by poets to the readers are developed through literary devices and poetic techniques. The literary devices, theme and tone, along with the poetic devices, imagery and symbolism, work together to convey the message being portrayed through the speaker by the poet. An example of such work is displayed by the poem Annabel Lee, written by Edgar Allan Poe. In this poem, Poe uses theme, tone, imagery, and symbolism to convey a message of sempiternal love, or everlasting, eternal love. And this maiden she lived with no other thought/ Than to love and be loved by me (Annabel Lee). Lines 5 and 6 of the first stanza display the poems most prominent theme love. Not only is love defied by the speaker in the first stanza, but it is also recognized in the other five stanzas as well. In each stanza, the speaker describes an unconditional love once given by him to a girl named Annabel Lee; thus, defining love as the major theme of the poem. The speaker explains in the poem that although the two were extremely young, the love shared between them was inseparable. The speaker explains that his love for Annabel Lee is everlasting and incapable of being destroyed by any outside force. The poem digs deep into the dangerous

parts of these emotions, the way love can trap you, torment you, and leave you sad and lonely (Shmoop Editorial Team).