Annabel Lee By The Sea

Poem by Edgar Allan Poe

Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe
Sartain'south Union Magazine of Literature and Art, Jan, 1850, Philadelphia
Country	United States
Linguistic communication	English language
Publisher	Sartain'southward Union Magazine, John Sartain
Publication date	1849 (1849)
Full text
Annabel Lee at Wikisource

"Annabel Lee" is the last complete verse form^[1] composed by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. Similar many of Poe'southward poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful adult female.^[2] The narrator, who savage in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a dearest for her then potent that fifty-fifty angels are envious. He retains his love for her even afterward her death. There has been debate over who, if anyone, was the inspiration for "Annabel Lee". Though many women have been suggested, Poe'south married woman Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe is one of the more credible candidates. Written in 1849, it was not published until presently after Poe'due south death that same twelvemonth.

Synopsis [edit]

The verse form'southward narrator describes his dearest for Annabel Lee, which began many years ago in a "kingdom by the sea". Though they were young, their dear for one another burned with such intensity that even angels were envious. For this reason the narrator believes the seraphim caused her death. Even so, their dear is strong plenty that it extends beyond the grave and the narrator believes their two souls are nevertheless entwined. Every night, the narrator dreams of Annabel Lee and sees the brightness of her eyes in the stars. Every night the narrator lies down by her side in her tomb past the sea.

Analysis [edit]

Like many other Poe poems including "The Raven", "Ulalume", and "To One in Paradise", "Annabel Lee" follows the theme of the death of a beautiful adult female,^[2] which Poe called "the nearly poetical topic in the world".^[3] Like women in many other works by Poe, she marries immature and is struck with disease.^[4] The verse form focuses on an ideal dear which is unusually strong. In fact, the narrator's deportment bear witness that he non only loves Annabel Lee, just he worships her, something he can only do after her death.^[five] The narrator admits that he and Annabel Lee were children when they roughshod in dearest, but his explanation that angels murdered her is in itself childish, suggesting he has failed to mature since and then.^[6] His repetition of this assertion suggests he is trying to rationalize his ain excessive feelings of loss.^[six]

Different "The Raven", in which the narrator believes he will "nevermore" be reunited with his love, "Annabel Lee" says the two volition be together once again, as not even demons "can ever dissever" their souls.

Poetic construction [edit]

"Annabel Lee" consists of six stanzas, three with vi lines, one with seven, and two with eight, with the rhyme blueprint differing slightly in each one.^[2] Though it is not technically a ballad, Poe referred to it as one.^[seven] Like a ballad, the poem uses repetition of words and phrases purposely to create its mournful event.^[2] The name Annabel Lee emphasizes the letter "Fifty", a frequent device in Poe's female characters such as "Eulalie", "Lenore", and "Ulalume".^[eight]

The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, Maryland has identified xi versions of "Annabel Lee" that were published between 1849 and 1850.^[9] The biggest variation is in the terminal line:

Original manuscript: "In her tomb by the side of the sea"

Culling version: "In her tomb past the sounding bounding main"

Inspiration [edit]

Poe's wife Virginia is oftentimes assumed to be the inspiration for "Annabel Lee".

It is unclear on whom the eponymous character Annabel Lee is based.^[10] Biographers and critics commonly suggest Poe'southward frequent utilize of the "death of a beautiful woman" theme stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his ain life, including his mother Eliza Poe and his foster mother Frances Allan.^[11] Biographers ofttimes interpret that "Annabel Lee" was written for Poe'southward wife Virginia, who had died two years prior, every bit was suggested by poet Frances Sargent Osgood, though Osgood is herself a candidate for the poem'south inspiration.^[10] A strong case can be fabricated for Poe'south married woman Virginia: She was the one he loved equally a child, the only ane who had been his bride, and the only one who had died.^[12] Autobiographical readings of the poem have as well been used to support the theory that Virginia and Poe never consummated their marriage, as "Annabel Lee" was a "maiden".^[13] Critics, including T. O. Mabbott, believed that Annabel Lee was merely the product of Poe'south gloomy imagination and that Annabel Lee was no real person in particular. A babyhood sweetheart of Poe'southward named Sarah Elmira Royster believed the poem was written with her in mind^[xiv] and that Poe himself said so.^[15] Sarah Helen Whitman and Sarah Anna Lewis also claimed to accept inspired the poem.^[16]

Local legend in Charleston, South Carolina tells the story of a sailor who met a woman named Annabel Lee. Her father disapproved of the pairing and the two met privately in a graveyard before the sailor's time stationed in Charleston was up. While away, he heard of Annabel's death from xanthous fever, only her father would not allow him at the funeral. Considering he did non know her exact burial location, he instead kept vigil in the cemetery where they had often secretly met. There is no evidence that Edgar Allan Poe had heard of this legend, but locals insist it was his inspiration, especially because Poe was briefly stationed in Charleston while in the army in 1827.^[17]

Publication history and reception [edit]

Poe's manuscript for "Annabel Lee", Columbia Academy Rare Volume and Manuscript Library

"Annabel Lee" was probably composed in May 1849.^[16] Poe took steps to ensure that the poem would be seen in print. He gave a copy to Rufus Wilmot Griswold, his literary executor and personal rival, gave another re-create to John Thompson to repay a $five debt, and sold a copy to Sartain'south Wedlock Magazine for publication.^[12] Though Sartain'southward was the first authorized press in January 1850, Griswold was the first to publish it on Oct 9, 1849, ii days afterward Poe's decease every bit role of his obituary of Poe in the Horace Greeley paper the New-York Daily Tribune.^[18] Thompson had it published in the Southern Literary Messenger in November 1849.^[12]

"Annabel Lee" was an inspiration for Vladimir Nabokov, especially for his novel Lolita (1955), in which the narrator, as a child, falls in love with the terminally sick Annabel Leigh "in a princedom past the sea". Originally, Nabokov titled the novel The Kingdom by the Ocean.^[xix] Nabokov later used this as the title of the Lolita "doppelganger novel" in Look at the Harlequins!.

Adaptations [edit]

The English composer Henry David Leslie (1822–96) gear up this as a ballad for voice and piano, respelling as "Annabelle Lee".
The 1914 silent picture show The Avenging Conscience is based on "Annabel Lee" and Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart".
1968 Curt Film "Annabel Lee" featuring Paul Le Mat (an unknown at the time) and Margo Duke - directed by Ronald R. Morante and Producer Paul Wolff - won best International Short Subject Competition for Best Cinematography. All rights were sold to Warner Bros. ca. 1969.
An adapted version of the verse form appears on Sarah Jarosz's 2011 album, Follow Me Downwardly.
Stevie Nicks recorded a version of this poem on her 2011 anthology In Your Dreams.
Joan Baez recorded a version of this poem on her 1967 album Joan, with music by Don Dilworth.
The band Alesana based three albums (The Emptiness, A Place Where the Sun Is Silent and Confessions) on the poem and chosen information technology The Annabel Trilogy.
The verse form appears on Marissa Nadler's album, Ballads of Living and Dying.
An adaptation appears in the vocal "Three" by the band La Dispute on their outset spoken word EP, Hither, Hear. and in the song "Autumn Down, Never Get Dorsum Up Again" on their album Somewhere at the Lesser of the River Between Vega and Altair.
The poem was set to music by the English composer Joseph Charles Holbrooke (5 July 1878 – 5 August 1958) every bit a Ballad for voice and orchestra Op. 41b (1905)
An adjusted version of the poem past Spanish group Radio Futura on their album La canción de Juan Perro, 1987 (music by Luis Auserón, lyric adapted by Santiago Auserón).
The poem was adapted equally the song "Annabel Lee" on the Tiger Army album Tiger Ground forces II: Ability of Moonlite
The verse form was translated to Hebrew by Ze'ev Jabotinsky and performed past various Israeli artists, among them Yossi Banai, Yoni Bloch and Shlomo Artzi (who performed the song both in Hebrew and in the original).
The poem was likewise the base for Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare as the first volume in the Dark Artifices series. Each chapter title is taken directly from the verse form.
The web series "Kissing in the Rain" features a shortened version of the poem with Sean Persaud equally Edgar Allan Poe and Mary Kate Wiles as Annabel Lee.
The band Black Rebel Motorcycle Lodge fabricated a song out of the poem. The piano led piece is an iTunes pre-society bonus track on their 6th studio album, Trounce the Devil'southward Tattoo. The album title is itself a phrase taken from some other Edgar Allan Poe brusque story, "The Devil in the Belfry".
Alexander Veljanov recorded an adaptation called Lied für Annabel Lee in German for the Edgar Allan Poe Projekt - Visionen (Double Album) 2006.
The plot for the video game The Night Eye is a loose adaptation of the poem.
A song past the American indie rock band Bright Optics "Jetsabel removes the undesirables" shares some of the same themes and contains directly references. The final lines of the song are near identical to the beginning of the last stanza of the poem.
A song based on this verse form appears on Josh Ritter'south 2010 album, So Runs the Earth Abroad, which was covered by the Punch Brothers for their 2012 EP, Ahoy! In this version, Annabel Lee is the singer's dearest sailing ship, which is destroyed during a failed polar expedition.
The progressive stone band Far from Your Sun set the poem to music on their 2015 album In the Showtime... Was the Emotion.
In the 2015 book past Jenny Han, P.S. I However Dearest You, and its 2020 picture adaptation, the verse form is used every bit a Valentine'due south Day souvenir, when the person giving the verse form as a gift claims they wrote it. The name Annabel Lee is changed to Lara Jean.

References [edit]

^ www.eapoe.org
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: Cooper Foursquare Press, 1992. p. 243. ISBN 0-8154-1038-vii
^ Poe, Edgar A. "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846).
^ Weekes, Karen. "Poe's feminine platonic", collected in The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge Academy Press, 2002. p. 152. ISBN 0-521-79727-six
^ Hoffman, Daniel. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. Billy Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972. p. 68. ISBN 0-8071-2321-viii
^ ^a ^b Empric, Julienne H. "A Note on 'Annabel Lee'", nerveless in Poe Studies. Volume Half-dozen, Number 1 (June 1973). p. 26.
^ Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998: 606. ISBN 0-8018-5730-nine
^ Kopley, Richard and Kevin J. Hayes. "2 poesy masterworks: 'The Raven' and 'Ulalume'", every bit collected in The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge University Press, 2002: 200. ISBN 0-521-79727-6
^ "Annabel Lee" – List of texts and variant texts at the Edgar Allan Poe Gild online
^ ^a ^b Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991. p. 401. ISBN 0-06-092331-eight
^ Weekes, Karen. "Poe'due south feminine ideal", collected in The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, edited past Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. 149. ISBN 0-521-79727-half dozen
^ ^a ^b ^c Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: Cooper Foursquare Printing, 1992. p. 244. ISBN 0-8154-1038-7
^ Hoffman, Daniel. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Academy Printing, 1972. p. 27. ISBN 0-8071-2321-viii
^ www.pambytes.com
^ Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991. p. 426. ISBN 0-06-092331-8
^ ^a ^b Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. Checkmark Books, 2001. p. 12. ISBN 0-8160-4161-X
^ Crawford, Tom. "The Ghost past the Bounding main". Retrieved May 14, 2008.
^ The New-York Daily Tribune, Tuesday, Oct 9, 1849, "Death of Edgar A. Poe", folio ii.
^ Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: Cooper Foursquare Printing, 1992. p. 302. ISBN 0-8154-1038-seven

External links [edit]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Publication history at the Edgar Allan Poe Society
"New-York daily tribune, October 09, 1849, Page 2". Chronicling America - Library of Congress . Retrieved 27 September 2019.
Audio – hear the poem read
"Annabelle Lee" [sic], a 19th-century musical version past Henry Leslie, sung past Derek B. Scott
An adaptation of the poem into comics
Annabel Lee public domain audiobook at LibriVox