Eternal Love for Annabel Lee

Eternal Love for Annabel Lee

Love is a powerful force that is unseen yet is so influential in the way people behave. In the poem Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator experiences an attraction so strong that it transcends the living world. Poe focuses on the eternal love between the narrator and Annabel Lee; how the love between these two star-crossed lovers exists even after death. With the use of poetic devices such as tone, imagery, symbolism, repetition and rhyme, Poe tells a powerful story about love.
This poem takes the form of a ballad. Poe uses this form to tell the story of the narrator and Annabel Lee. Characteristics that make this poem a ballad are its strong rhythms, repetition of key phrases and rhymes. As a ballad, this poem is very song-like. It is easy to imagine Poe reading this story of love and death intimately to a group of people. The tone of the author is both resentful and passionate. He is resentful of the angels who took Annabel away from him before her time. At the same time, he is also passionate. Poe writes, “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”, this shows that even though they have been physically separated, their love continues to grow stronger. In addition, Poe uses end rhyme to emphasize the poem’s subject. Every other line ends with an ee sound, “sea”, “me” and “we” all rhyme with Lee. This makes it clear to the reader that she important to the author.
Another point to note is Poe’s use of imagery and symbolism. Poe describes the setting of this poem as “a kingdom by the sea”. This creates an image of a grand castle on a cliff, looking over the sea which adds to the feeling of love and romance, almost like a fairy tale, that is present in the poem. However, once Annabel Lee is taken away by her “highborn kinsman”, the kingdom becomes symbol associated with sorrow and pain for the narrator. Furthermore, the sepulchre is a symbol for...

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