Who was Annabel Lee writen in memory of?

-- Anonymous, February 15, 2005

Answers

I think it's in memory of Virginia Clemm, his wife

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

well duh his wife, she was dieing in the other room of comsumption.

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2005

Annabel Lee was written to his cousin/wife Virgina. She was only 13 and died at a very young age. They were said to be very in love.

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2005

Good question. It still is controversial but it probably is NOT directly written about Virginia but rather spinning from his recent failed romance with Sarah Whitman another poet with whom he shared poems. In any event, it is veiled more as an exercise, perhaps inspired by another poem which matches it in many ways, The Mourner(1807) about the death of "Anna". Poe was fairly distraught during this period of mourning and frantic courtships and also needed the money. The most direct poem about Virginia's death is "Ulalume". However it may be more useful to chart the chronology of mournful poems about a dead love and see Poe's progression as it is a theme of his art and Muse more than any one of his sad experiences. As W. B. Yeats pointed out, it is not the equivalence to a particular woman that rules the poem but a detached work of art following its own rules.

Poe would state that this particular theme is the highest of poetry(A Philosophy of Composition). Paean, To One in Paradise, The Sleeper, Lenore, The Raven, Annabel Lee, Ulalume, etc.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2005