Annabel Lee - Poem Analysis

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Poem Analysis – Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe Edgar Allen Poe uses a variety of literary techniques to convey the various messages between the lines of the poem Annabel Lee. Edgar Allen Poe has written this poem in his point of view, relating as the young boy to himself. This poem is about a young boy and a maiden, whom despite their young age love each other so immensely that the seraphs of heaven are envious. For this reason, the seraphs kill Annabel Lee in the hopes that their love will be oppressed. However, although they were not married in life, Poe makes it clear that they will be united in death, leaving the efforts of the seraphs wasted. With this in mind, readers are urged to understand that their love was not infatuation but pure love. The emotion of pure love is portrayed strongly throughout the poem, particularly when Poe interprets Annabel Lee’s thoughts believing that she ‘lived with no other thought than to love and be loved by me’. Not to mention, Annabel Lee is a stranger whom readers only know as a maiden. Through the poetic technique of hyperbole, the reader will come to question the true meaning of their love, whether Annabel Lee truly believed these words, or Poe had only been too blind by love to see reason. It is important to realise readers will never grasp the true feelings of Annabel Lee as it is explained Annabel Lee is ‘in her sepulchre there by the sea’ which essentially means Annabel Lee is dead. Equally important, the last stanza of the poem is in the present tense, the poet uses this technique to prove the point of the lovers’ strong bond and this is evident as the poet makes it clear that ‘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’. Annabel Lee consists of six stanzas and within each stanza there are six to eight lines. The language used
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