Any suggestions are appreciated. Thoughts on what you think the poem means? Thanks!

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Answers

I have done this before and probably better since I can't remember how I went about it before. This is a ballad fantasy set in some indeterminate(medieval?) Kingdom by the sea. A poem of loss but defiance, melancholic, crushed yet persisting in a love severed by death. The image of the shore is important, the surf-tormented boundary between the earthly life and the next. The sea represents sorrows, troubles, chaos and death, but most of all in its inexorable rhythms echoed in the music of the verses itself. This ranks as another great example of onomatopaeia along with the Bells.

Many a year ago.... a maiden you may know....This shows a legendary, typical ballad theme. Note throughout the poem the focus of love is the poet. She loved and was an object of love. This possessiveness is rather self-centered and does not pretend to know what she feels for him beyond the grave. The love still burns in him and he haunts the tomb, side by side with her sepulchre, beside the shore. The singsong wavelike rhythm has two endings. the variation I prefer is the one that sounds like the final pause of a wave at its strongest then silence in a downbeat "by the sounding sea" rather than the jounty variant "by the side of the sea."

The lover thinks not too kindly of the jealous angels who ruined their love by sending the chilling wind(this poem is all about the sounds and fates expressed by wind moving over air and water.)Though their physical bond has been shattered, he vows that the binding love will continue and as a rather gloomy sign of that he stays forever by the sepulchre.

The highborn kinsmen represent the relatives or the world that always made it rough on Poe to find love and happiness. If the poem refers to his recently deceased wife Virginia, as it seems to, then it exposes a yet unresolved grief. For Poe, his losses are never quite resolved, and even when undesired the ghosts linger oppressively, yet out of reach.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

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-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001

Annabelle Lee is poem that was written by edgar Allan poe. He wrote this poem after his wife virginia died by some disease. He was in a depression when he wrote this poem. Annabelle Lee express all the feeling Poe had for Viriginia. "to love and be loved by me", this line created an image of love between 2 people. Everytime the line "in the kingdom by the sea" occur, it is a breaking point to the poem. the word sea is often rhythmed with other words in this poem. Poe hated the angels because he accused them of taking his lover away.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002

(My thematic analysis for English. ^^;) They say that there is a kind of love that goes beyond death, beyond all reality and comprehension. The love is a kind to envy, they say, for it is rare, yet a kind to cherish all the same. And, oh this love, this beautiful love, is found in a “kingdom by the sea.” Through assonance, shifts, many metaphors, and other rhetoric devices, Edgar Allan Poe expresses this said love in his poem “Annabelle Lee.” “Annabelle Lee” is about two people who love each other very much. The two are young, yet even so their love is deep and pure, so much so that the angels of heaven covet this love. Because they envy the two so much, the angels send a “chilling wind” to kill the beautiful Annabelle Lee, and her relatives come and seal her in a tomb by the sea. To defy this separation the writer goes to the tomb every night to be with her, refusing to give up the love they shared, and so their love is eternal. It is quite obvious that the writer loves Annabelle Lee very much, and is sad by her death, but he will never let their love die, or the memory of her. “But we loved with a love that was more than love…” and “our love it was stronger by far than the love/Of those who were older than we/Of many far wiser than we…” shows how deep their love was, and how pure, for a child’s love is more pure than any others because they do not judge, yet they are careful who they love, and they give their love unconditionally. “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 Annabelle Lee.” Mortal life cannot interfere with the love of the writer and his Annabelle Lee, or so Poe is saying. Hearing of a love so pure and so deep almost makes your heart bleed for them, but the reader shouldn’t do so. The writer believes that they will always be together, so there is no need to weep for them. He also seems arrogant in his love, saying that the angels envy it, and that they aren’t “half as happy in heaven.” Though Poe’s attitude seems on the verge of remorse and depression from the loss, he also show determination to never let go of the love, and it will thus last forever. There is speculation that he wrote the poem because his wife, Virginia, died of a disease, and if this is true, then “Annabelle Lee” is one large metaphor in itself. Virginia is Annabelle Lee, and is young, and many criticized Poe for marrying her for that reason. Those who criticized can be compared to “her highborn kinsman” (his family was among the group who frowned on him), “the winged seraphs of heaven,” and the angels and demons. The “chilling wind” is obviously death, or the disease that killed Virginia, taking his love from him. After her death, Poe went into a deep depression, turning to alcohol, as was his usual cure for such, and “Annabelle Lee” seems to be both a way for him to express his feelings, and a way for him to let go. Among the poem there are other metaphors that can be debated. The sea can be the trouble in life - death, heartache, sickness, poverty, etc – especially since it contains demons. The “kingdom by the sea” represents the happy times – love, joy, and life. There seems to be many shifts in “Annabelle Lee,” the main ones are at the start of each stanza. There also seems to be at least a small shift after each line that says “In a kingdom by the sea,” as the poem moves onto different events or topics. The shifts are used to denote the changes in events, yet the topic never strays from the story of Annabelle Lee and the feelings the writer has towards her. The rhythmic meter of this poem almost seems to be like that of the steady tide of the sea, and has a rhythm as fluent as water. Assonance is used in line number 32 when it says, “Can ever dissever my soul from the soul,” to add even more rhythmic flow, and is used in other places such as “chilling and killing” and “beams and dreams.” “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved before.” Poe wrote of this, but he showed us that you don’t have to lose that love, that there is a love that can exist away from mortal bonds of death. Poe wrote of a pure love that was the envy of angels and demons alike, a love that was punished by death and separation. Though written in a depressing manner, as was a characteristic in most of his poems, he proved to the hypocrites and criticizers that his love would always last no matter what they said, through “Annabelle Lee.”

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2003