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POETRY (PARAPHRASING EDGAR ALLAN POES ANNABEL LEE) In the beginning, this poem tells us that the story we are about to hear happened "many a year ago" in a "kingdom by the sea." These little details are important, because the sea and this old kingdom will be big images in the poem. Even more important though, is Annabel Lee. She's the title character, and she's the reason the poem exists. The speaker introduces her in the third line by calling her a "maiden," which lets us know that she is young (and probably attractive), but which also keeps up the fairy-tale feel of the first few lines. (You might think of her as being a little like a Disney princess, although as you'll see, this poem is way too dark to be a Disney movie.) Finally, the speaker tells us the key fact of this poem, which is that he and Annabel Lee were in love. So much in love that it was the only thing that mattered to either of them. In second stanza, the speaker lets us know that both he and Annabel Lee were young when this happened. Not teenagers even, but kids: "I was a child and she was a child." This lets us know just how rare and special their love was, but it also tips us off that maybe there's something not quite right here. He also repeats the line: "in the kingdom by the sea." This reminds us where we are, but also creates the hypnotic, repeating effect that Poe loves. It's the same trick he uses in the next line, when he tells us that he and Annabel "loved with a love that was more than love." He wants to let us know that their love was special and intense, even though they were so young. So, the speaker uses the word love three times in the same line, which is a pretty gutsy move for a poet. This love was apparently so amazingly strong that the "seraphs" (that's just a fancy word for "angels") in heaven noticed them. In fact, these angels apparently "coveted" the two young lovers. That's a kind of tricky word, but an important one for this poem. To covet means to want something really badly, usually something that doesn't belong to you. This is a strange feeling for angels to have, since it's definitely not a holy emotion. It's also our first hint that things might not turn out so well for these two kids. In the third stanza, the condition gets worse. The speaker blames the terrible turn of events on the angels who coveted him and Annabel. The jealousy of the angels was the reason why a wind came down from a cloud and killed his girlfriend. Actually the speaker doesn't tell us right away that she dies, just that the wind was "chilling" to her. That's a great word to use because it makes us think of the way you get sick in bad weather (like how people say you "catch cold"). At the same time, it gives us a first creepy hint of Annabel's cold, chilled dead body, which is a major theme for this poem. Then, still without saying that she was dead, the speaker tells us how her "kinsman" (that just means a member of her family) came and took her away from him. Be sure to notice the word he uses to describe this kinsman. He calls him "highborn" which means aristocratic, noble. If the speaker himself were "highborn" he probably wouldn't think to mention this. Since he does, it gives us a little hint of a conflict here. Maybe even before

she died there were problems in his relationship with Annabel Lee. That's just a small example of how Poe can work neat details into what seems like a simple story. Whatever is going on with the family, you can feel the speaker's pain at losing Annabel, and you can tell that he feels she is being stolen from him. He tells us how the family "bore" (that just means "carried") her away from him. Death and Annabel's family are trying to tear these two lovers apart, to "shut her up" in a "sepulcher." (That's another word for a big fancy building that you bury someone in, a tomb like you might see in an old cemetery. It's also a perfect Poe word you can always count on him to go for a spooky, fancy word when he can.) In the fourth stanza, the speaker circles back a little bit, and directly blames the angels for killing his girlfriend. He says that he and Annabel were happier on earth than the angels were in heaven, and that made them jealous. He repeats what he said in line 13, insisting that "that was the reason" why the wind came down and killed Annabel Lee. The speaker is extra careful to point out that this isn't just his wacky theory, but in fact that everyone ("all men") who live in the kingdom know that this is a fact. We don't get any new facts in this stanza, and the story itself doesn't move forward. At the same time, maybe we learn something about the speaker's mental state. The fact that he circles back and repeats the story of Annabel's death might show us see how traumatic it was for him. He can't seem to stop thinking about that moment. Also, we think this theory about angels killing Annabel because they are jealous sounds a little off the wall. Check out line 23, when he says "Yes!--that was the reason." He sounds a little like a madscientist hatching a nutty idea. This will be important later, when things get even more bizarre. Finally, notice how, even when Poe seems to be repeating himself, he's adding little changes and bits of new information. In line 17, the speaker directly mentions Annabel's death for the first time, when he talks about the wind "killing" her. Again, even when the story is simple, it's a good idea to watch every word Poe uses. In the fifth stanza, we are told that even if death might seem to be the end of love, the speaker tells us that isn't the case for him and Annabel. Even though they were young, that didn't stop them from loving completely, and from knowing what they wanted. He goes on to say that neither the angels in heaven nor the demons who live under the water can stop their love. Nothing in heaven or hell can "dissever" (that means cut or separate) his soul and Annabel's soul. The bottom line is that their love is eternal, and that nothing and no one can tear them apart. In the sixth or the last stanza, we arrive at the reason why this could never be a sweet pop song or a Disney movie. Because their love is unbroken, because they can't be separated by death, our speaker spends his nights curled up next to Annabel's dead body. After he hits us with that super-disturbing image, he follows it up by telling us that she is his darling, his life, and his bride. They were not married in life, but now they can be united in death. The speaker seems increasingly obsessed and unbalanced as the poem goes on, and this is what it all leads to. He is half-alive and half-dead, sleeping in a tomb by the ocean. Poe leaves us with one last haunting

phrase, "the sounding sea," which makes us think of the booming roar of the ocean, suddenly terrifying and cold. So, this poem absolutely ends with a sad ending.