I am writing an essay on Annabelle Lee and what makes it a romantic piece of literature. Any thought?

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2002

Answers

"love more than a love". The Byronic hero, the wild, out of the ordinary emotions to the extreme boundaries of love and death. A nebulous setting in a kingdom by the sea. Danger, madness, passion, youthful innocence, revolt, the self-centered anguish of the narrator. Not consoled by traditional faith but in emnity, putting love before death and all reason. Nature echoes his entiments, emotion before reason. In fact the only reason is shown to be the dark jealousy of the angels, like the highborn kinsmen, the old wise ones who separate the two lovers. The sea is a common romantic setting because of the range of stirred emotions, the relentless danger, eternity and opposition give a purer musical backdrop to the singular passions of the solitary poet.

As a revolt against classicism it reverts back to medieval ballad, the romance with new answers to accepted forms and beliffs from the inspiration of the indiviudal experience.

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2002