Poe's feeling?

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Was Poe by any chance writing about Virginia when he wrote Annabel Lee? Maybe he felt that way when she died...devoted? What do you think?

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2001

Answers

In spite of the fact that Poe was tossing this poem here and there in desperate attempts to gain new love or money, the unmistakable feeling is that this must be what he felt about Virginia. I suppose some telling textual arguments can support this this(like comparing the couple in "Hop-Frog") but the emotion seems the strongest argument, for it does not correspond to his hopes for a new romance.

I do note that as in Ulalume the poet seems concerned with his own feelings over and above that of HIS lost love. Virginia had wanted to spare him that despair or at least be that beacon of hope he often wrote about.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001


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