In Edgar Alan Poe’s poem Annabel Lee the narrator who calls himself a child, tells a tale of his love Annabel Lee, whom lived by the sea. They were childishly and madly in love, a love that exceeds all love. The affection between the narrator and Annabel was so strong that the angels (of the highest order) in heaven, envious of their affection, sent down a wind, which chilling Annabel, kills her. The narrator blames the envious angles on Annabel’s tragic death. The angels did not succeed though in their quest to end the love between Annabel and the narrator, because there love was far too strong to be destroyed by death. Though Annabel is gone the narrator still sees her and feels her. The angel’s envy could not ruin what they had.
One main theme in Poe’s poem is childish purity. The first line of the poem is set up as a fairy tale “it was many and many years ago in a kingdom by the sea.” The poem goes to be a balled with repetitive rhymes, the main one being, “sea,” “Lee,” “me,” and a rhythm that gives the poem a childlike feel. Like a child singing a nursery rhyme. Poe also uses the words “maiden” and “child” to give the poem a pure feel. The actions of the narrator in the poem are also childish. “The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, went envying her and me: Yes! That is the reason…that the wind came out of the cloud, chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.” The thought that the angels could have caused the death of his love is an immature thought. The narrator goes on to mock the angels my saying “our love it was stronger by far then the love of those who were older then we- far more wiser then we-“ the narrator is undermining that angels, who are supposed to be godly, by saying they did not think threw their plan enough. The love between Annabel and the narrator was too strong and mature to be ruined by the envy of the angels or death