Edgar Allan Poe · first published 1849
Annabel Lee
Meaning, complete text, stanza guide, vocabulary, techniques and an explained quiz.
What the poem means
A bereaved speaker turns childhood love into a legend and insists that neither angels nor death can separate him from Annabel Lee.
Ballad repetition enlarges a private loss into a “kingdom by the sea,” while the speaker blames envious heavenly beings and returns nightly to the tomb. The claim of inseparability is moving but also unsettling because devotion has narrowed into perpetual life beside a grave.
The poem
Spelling and punctuation follow the checked source edition. Stanza links connect the text to the guide and quiz.
Stanza 1. It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of ANNABEL LEE;-- And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me. She was a child and I was a child, In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love-- I and my Annabel Lee-- With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me.
Stanza 2. And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud by night Chilling my Annabel Lee; So that her high-born kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea.
Stanza 3. The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, Went envying her and me:-- Yes! that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of a cloud, chilling And killing my Annabel Lee.
Stanza 4. 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:--
Stanza 5. For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea-- In her tomb by the side of the sea.
Stanza guide
Stanzas 1–5
The poem repeats names, setting and causal claims as if repetition could secure the past. Its musical ballad surface encourages sympathy, while the speaker's certainty about angels and his final vigil leave room to question grief that cannot change.
Return to stanza 1 ↑Vocabulary
- seraphs
- high-ranking angels
- kinsmen
- male relatives
- sepulchre
- a tomb or burial place
Literary techniques
Refrain
“kingdom by the sea” and Annabel Lee recur
Repetition makes memory ritualistic and gives the narrative a legendary setting.
Internal rhyme
closely placed rhymes propel many lines
The musical pattern makes the speaker's obsession persuasive and difficult to interrupt.
Unreliable perspective
the speaker states supernatural jealousy as fact
Certainty reveals the intensity of grief without requiring the reader to accept the explanation literally.
Study check
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