Annabel Lee - by EDGAR ALLAN POE

It was many and many a year ago,

   In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

   By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

   Than to love and be loved by me.

 

I was a child and she was a child,

   In this kingdom by the sea,

But we loved with a love that was more than love—

   I and my Annabel Lee—

With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven

   Coveted her and me.

 

And this was the reason that, long ago,

   In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

   My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsmen came

   And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre

   In this kingdom by the sea.

 

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,

   Went envying her and me—

Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,

   In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

   Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

 

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

   Of those who were older than we—

   Of many far wiser than we—

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 Annabel Lee;

 

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

   Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,

   In her sepulchre there by the sea—

   In her tomb by the sounding sea.

1.     If you were to meet the speaker of this poem, what would want to ask him?

2.     How does the speaker describe the love he shared with AL?

3.     Who is jealous of the speaker and AL?

4.     What do Annabel Lee’s relatives do to her?

5.     According to the last stanza, where does the speaker now see Annabel Lee?

6.     Where does he sleep each night? Where you surprised when you discovered where he slept? Do you think he actually slept there, or is he speaking of what he does in his imagination?

7.     List the rhyming sounds that echo through the six stanzas. What words are repeated over and over again? What does the repetition remind you of?

8.     One theme of this poem is loss. What does the poem say about loss? Do you think the speaker’s feelings of grief are universal?

9.     Some say that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Do you agree or disagree? How do you think the poem’s speaker would respond to that idea?