An analysis of Edgar Allan Poes Annabel Lee - Research Paper Example

?   An Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” is a poem about the love sharedby the poet and a girl, how fate and death tried to destroy this love, and how this love has survived even after death. The poem addresses the themes of love and the obstacles to it and the author cleverly weaves these themes through the effective use of imagery and alliteration. Furthermore, “Annabel Lee” has references to Poe’s personal life. The Theme of Love and The Obstacles to Love In “Annabel Lee,” Poe addresses the subject of love at two levels: love for someone alive and love for a dead lover. Poe’s love for Annabel Lee when she was still alive was one of such a great magnitude. This all-encompassing love filled Annabel Lee’s mind when she was still alive as stated in the line, “And this maiden she lived with no other thought/ Than to love and be loved by me” (Poe, “Annabel Lee,” lines 5-6). The line clearly states that there was nothing else that Annabel Lee thought of other than this love the author had for her. Although this may simply be a mere exaggeration on the part of the poet, still the line emphasizes the greatness of such a love and the idea that this love probably inspired most of Annabel Lee’s daily life prior to her death. Furthermore, this love shared by Annabel Lee and the poet when the former was still alive was one shared mutually. All that Annabel Lee thought of was “to love and be loved” by the poet (6), which means that she did want to show him her love but at the same time, she expected him to do the same to her. In short, this love was not one of a sacrifice where only one would love the other. Moreover, Poe affirms this mutual love when he says, “But we loved with a love that was more than love” (9). The first mention of the word “love” was the great love the author believed he and Annabel Lee shared while the second mention of the word “love” was somehow the kind of mediocre love he believed was shared by other people. Although, in the second stanza, there was a hint of childishness in the love that the poet shared with Annabel Lee for “I was a child and she was a child” (7), Poe assures the reader that this is nothing childish. He specifically counters this argument regarding childish love in the fifth stanza as he says, “But our love was stronger by far than the love/ Of those who were older than we-/ of many far wiser than we-” (27-28). From this line, the reader is made to believe that both the poet and Annabel Lee could love better and so much more than even the old and the wise. Furthermore, it was to be proven later on in the poem that indeed this love is something extraordinary and greater than death. This great, all-encompassing love is indeed put to the test when “A wind blew out of a cloud,/ [and chilled] my beautiful Annabel Lee” (15-16). The death is the test of their love, but far from this idea of a test, the poet believes that this is more of a result of envy on the part of fate, represented by the angels: “The angels, not half so happy in heaven,/ Went envying her and me-” (21-22). The envy must have been caused by the great pride both the poet and Annabel Lee shared when it came to their love when the latter was still alive. Nevertheless, although the reader may not be able to distinguish whether the poet’s love for the dead Annabel Lee is one brought about by pride or true love, it remains clear that his love for someone dead is just all the same as the one when she was still alive. Although there is no more clue as to whether this love is still mutually shared by the poet and the dead Annabel Lee, this love remains to be strong. Poe proves this by stating his convictions in the line, “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” (30-33). The mention of the word “soul” may suggest suicide on the part of the poet but it may also just mean that his heart and mind about Annabel Lee have never changed. He further proves the constancy of this undying love when he mentions, “And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side/ Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride” (38-39). Although this may imply necrophilia if taken literally, the point remains that the love addressed by Poe in this poem is eternal in nature. Poe may have addressed the subject of love differently in both the living and dead Annabel Lee but he has shown this love to be constant and everlasting. On the other hand, the poem also reflects one obstacle that affects the love between two people. In the poem, Poe focuses on angels who are envious and jealous of his love to Annabel Lee. One recalls that Annabel Lee was “chilled and killed” by “the wind that came out of the cloud at night” (25), but that this wind, as the poet mentions, was caused by “The angels, [who were] not half so happy in heaven,/ [And who] went envying her and me-“ (21-22). Additionally, Poe hints in the fifth stanza that “demons under down under the sea” (31) are helping the “angels in heaven above” (30) in separating him and Annabel Lee, making it sound that both the forces above and below were against him and their love. Nevertheless, the idea remains that the angels were the ones responsible for Annabel Lee’s death. Moreover, the word “angels” is far from literal. Angels in Poe’s poem may represent heavenly forces which direct or alter the fate of men beyond their reason and understanding. In the poem, the poet does not give any account of how he was able to know that “The angels [were] not half so happy in heaven,/ [And] went envying her and me-” (21-22), and how he has come to know that they were in fact behind Annabel Lee’s death. It seems that the poet was mainly ignorant of the real cause of his lover’s death but in all his indignation he simply made up his mind that it was the angels who were responsible for all this misfortune. In short, Poe’s poem demonstrates the power of heavenly forces over mankind and over the love that mankind has built and worshipped, no matter how much he values this love. Imagery and Alliteration Poe’s “Annabel Lee” does not only explain the idea of love as well as the obstacles to it; it also serves as a proof of the effective use of imagery and alliteration, which both help reinforce the themes of love and obstacles to love. The poem uses powerful imagery that appeals to the senses, and alliteration that makes it sound musical. Vivid imagery that appeals to the sense of touch and sight dominate Poe’s “Annabel Lee” and overall helps the reader understand the meaning of the poem and the message it bears. The cold chilling wind, the demons down under the sea, and the winged seraphs of heaven somehow add to the idea of the horrible, unstoppable forces behind Annabel Lee’s unfortunate death. In the same way, the bright moonbeam and stars, and the bright eyes of the beautiful Annabel Lee all help the reader feel and share the poet’s grief and longing for a woman who was indeed too young, too beautiful and too good to die. The poet also makes very good use of alliteration in order to make the poem musical. In Poe’s “Annabel Lee,” the alliterations are present in the line “The angels, not half so happy in heaven” (21) as well as in the line “Nor the demons down under the sea” (31). Other instances of alliteration in “Annabel Lee” include “That the wind came out of the cloud by night,/ Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee” (25-26), where the words came, cloud and killing all have an initial /k/ sound. Lastly, perhaps the longest alliteration in this poem is “But our love it was stronger by far than the love/ Of those who were older than we-/ Of many far wiser than we-” (27-29), where the initial /w/ sound is emphasized many times. The several alliterations in Poe’s poem somehow emphasize the poet’s own repetitive meditations on his own helplessness in the facing the fact that death always wins against man. The alliterations may also serve as the poet’s accusations against the angels, the demons and the wind, which make up the evil that the poet considers responsible for the death of Annabel Lee. Furthermore, the longest alliteration in Poe’s poem seems to emphasize the poet’s great and unique love for Annabel Lee, and the alliteration itself seems like the voice of the poet begging the presumably incredulous reader to believe in the greatness and uniqueness of this love. The Time Frame and the Poet Edgar Allan Poe The poem “Annabel Lee” was written in 1849 and was the last poem written by the American author Edgar Allan Poe. The poem is believed to be an immortalization of Poe’s love and loss of his wife Virginia Clemm. Moreover, the poem also seems to echo the resentment Poe had during the years of poverty when this unexpected death of his wife happened. His poverty and her death may have left Poe “powerless” (Sova 25). Moreover, as what is shown by this essay, the poem is also believed to be a picture of someone who “struggles to maintain his love against the disapproval of others (25). Poe in real life may have failed to battle against the death of his wife and his powerlessness in the face of Death itself but he surely was successful in immortalizing this theme of eternal love in “Annabel Lee.” Conclusion Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” is a testament to an undying love that survives despite all the obstacles. The themes of eternal love and obstacles to love are exemplified by the vivid use of imagery that speaks of how much the poet loved the woman who passed away. Moreover, the various instances of alliteration that somehow express the obstacles to love and the author’s own powerlessness in the face of death and the supernatural forces that allow death to take place. Lastly, the poem may also bear a resemblance to the poet’s own longing for his deceased wife. Works Cited Poe, Edgar Allan. “Annabel Lee.” PoemHunter.com. 1989. Web. 27 Apr 2011. Sova, Dawn B. Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York, NY: Facts on File, Inc., 2007. Print. Read More