what was the meaning of the poems "Annabelle Lee", "The Raven", and "A Dream".

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2004

Answers

There is a lot more to these poems than a plot summary, whcih can be misleading but...

Annabel lee is about a narrator telling of his obsession with his young love who died long ago and his defiant vigil by her tomb beside the sea against all those forces that tried(successfully in a way) to keep them apart. It's all about him and the bond seems absorbed into his private passion.

An earlier poem "The Raven" shows a less seasoned mourner playing word games with symbolic omens to lead himself into his own trap and reveal his despair. He succeeds in even convoncing the reader that this is the spooky bird's fault, but no matter, he is quite enthralled with the sensation he has created in the hollow of his unrequited obsessive memory.

"A Dream" assuming you want this poem and not another of those with dream in the title is about a very clever juxtaposition of dream by day and dream by night centering around, most probably a "waking dream" just before sunrise when one thinks things are most real when the vision itself is strongest. The point here too is that joy is past but that even this painful connection is worth the trip more than reality in the present. This shorter poem is actually a lot more packed and subtle than the first two ballads and well worth closer study. Again, the point easiest missed is that the story is about the narrator himself and his total engrossment in what seems to us and others as a negative passion, but which is more important to him almost than the original joy.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2004