Annabel Lee is the last poem composed by Edgar Allan Poe and it was published a year

before he died in 1949. The main theme for Annabel Lee is love. This narrative poem was

meant to be about his wife who passed away two years before he died and he still mourned

toward his long-loss love. The tone for this poem is romantic and mournful and since the poet

kept stressed on the sweetness of love between he and Annabel Lee and he said that their love

was stronger than anything like the fifth stanza, “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” and he also told about the death of his Annabel Lee as in fourth

stanza “that the wind came out by the cloud by night,” “chilling and killing my Annabel Lee”.

The poet also showed his adoration and passion toward his wife “my beautiful Annabel Lee” in

third stanza line number four and as in the last stanza line number two and four, the repetition

of “of the beautiful Annabel Lee”.

The setting of this poem took place in past, maybe in a few decades ago like the first

and second line which stated in the first stanza of Annabel Lee by using the fairy tale language

“it was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea” which it describe a long time ago

and the word kingdom may refer to the rich and high standard family. Next, the characters in

this poem is a man and a beautiful woman who passionately in love with each other since they

were young just as the first line in the second stanza, “I was a child and she was a child” and

even until the woman passed away, the male character still cannot move on yet he felt that his

love toward his wife was inseparable. Apart from that, the point of view of Annabel Lee is the

first person which is the poet kept addressing “than to loved and be loved by me”, “I and my

Annabel Lee”, “My beautiful Annabel Lee”. Poe did not removed himself by adding any third

person in the poem for example Annabel Lee and her lover. This poem is only focusing on the

writer, as the first person, he revealed his personal thoughts and feeling into the poem.
 The plot built in Annabel Lee can be seen clearly by each chronological stanza. Reader

also can imagine the environment and feeling of what the author want to deliver. It was about

a couple who madly in love from a young age and how his wife died and lastly, the suffering

and mourning of the writer because of the difficulty in accepting the reality about his loss. The

massages that Poe tried to convey to reader in this poem is, love does not die easily even if the

lover does. He and his Annabel Lee were very passionate toward each other from a very young

age until the death separate them away. But still, Poe was extremely believe that it is only their

bodies have been separated but not their love.

Next, the literary devices that can be found in this poem is imagery which Poe used to

raise the sensory experience toward this poem. Just as in first line in the first stanza “it was

many and many a year ago” and the third line in the second stanza “but we loved with a love

that was more than love-“. The poet want the reader to visualize the environment that took

place in the poem and feel the feeling that the he try to convey like the burning love between

he and Annabel Lee. The personification takes place in fourth stanza line number five and six,

“that the wind came out of the cloud by night”, “chilling and killing my Annabel Lee” when

the author describe how the wind killed his wife by giving the human quality to the wind. By

personifying the wind, the reader will feel it as a dismal tragedy happened to Annabel Lee’s

death.

Poe also applied a diction element in this poem by using a certain words to fit the theme

of the poem as beautiful and darling to describe a deep love and longing toward his dead wife.

It also makes reader to easily understand on how much he thinks of her wife and his love still

strong even his wife was passed away. Poe used this element to touch reader’s emotion.

Besides, the poet used assonance, by repeating the vowel sound in a few stanza such a long

rhyme “e” such as ‘me’, ‘Lee’ and ‘sea’ in the poem to render a smooth gloomy and calming

effect that make reader describes the mournful emotion of the author. There is also a similes
element, which Poe used the words than, neither and nor to indirectly make a comparison as in

the whole fifth stanza, and the first and second line of it be like “but our love was stronger by

far than the love of those who were older than we” which compared the greatest and deepest

love of him and Annabel Lee to others and they believed that their love can never break up.

The values and morality that can be found in Annabel Lee is love and appreciate the

person who really loved you, such in the last stanza, the author was very fond of his wife and

he was never forget her even though his wife was passed away. It seems like he still cannot

move on from the death of his wife. He suffers from keep missing and remembering his beloved

wife.