what is the meaning behind the poem of Annabel Lee, did she die or did their love die because they were separated. an english summary of annable lee please thank you.

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2002

Answers

Well... that is a good question. I would say, in my opinion that it was just plain her not being there, whether it be from her dieing or they being seperated.

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2002

That is an excellent question since in many of Poe's early wortks he treats(as other poets did) romantic loss(Royster's kin married her to someone else while Poe was away) like the death of his beloved. There is something of that sentiment very much here when he speaks of the "highborn kinsmen" appropriating the body and locking it in their tomb.

So the theme itself is in that literary traditon, personal and general. However it IS after Virginia's death and the keening, defiantly resentful mood betokens a stage of grief Poe could not easily move beyond, so intently fixated was he upon the lost past. The poet keeps the love alive though the actual person of the beloved is not only absent, but hardly even described as anything else but "to love and be loved by me." Read that over a few times, then look for a description or affectionate reference to the object as a person. "To Helen" may been a goddess like figure but this charming bride is equally removed from what we think of as married love. See "Ligeia". Does that narrator really "love" the person- or the obsession itself? That is why there is something disturbing, selfish, remote, spooky in this wild and great love of the poet, but common at that time among "les poetes de soi" the poets of the self examining their own interior world.

The poem reads like a short story sio is easy to follow. But pay attention as always to the narrator's perspective and choices, the dark balladic keening(or pounding relentless will) in rhythm with the eternal waves.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2002

I believe she died for in the poem it said that he layed by her tomb that is next to the sea. Twice they refer her to her tomb and then one they say that the wind came and chilled and killed her.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2003

I think that Annable was his second wife that died from TB. I think this because all of the women he came in contact with died from TB.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2004