Annabel Lee Essay

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Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe “Annabel Lee” is the last complete poem Edgar Allan Poe made. This particular poem has the theme of the death of a beautiful woman like many other poems Poe made does. The voice of this poem may be the author, Allan Poe, or it very well may be a character the author developed. Even though Poe uses first person in this poem, one must be careful to not assume that he is talking or referring to himself; because if one was to assume that the speaker is the author then the reader would try to make connections between the poem and the author. Drawing connections between the author and poem is not always what the author intends on his reader to do. Since there was no direct answer to who the speaker is the speaker of this poem is anonymous. “Annabel Lee” is a heart-filled, compassionate, and somewhat sorrowful poem in which the speaker describes his loyal undying love to the protagonist Annabel Lee. The poem is heart-filled because the speaker uses many different romantic metaphors to describe his love for her. The poem is sorrowful because the speaker describes his grief of the untimely death of his love Annabel Lee. The poem is compassionate because even after the death of his beloved he still has a loyal unchanging love for her. The way Poe evokes all these different emotions through the use of rich and romantic diction, abounding symbolism, and lyrical rhythm is what really makes this poem intoxicating. The poem's romantic diction immerses the reader into the speaker's fantasy-like tale of love shared with Annabel Lee. He begins the poem with the first two lines, "It was many and many a year ago, / In a kingdom by the sea," sort of how one would begin a fairytale with “once upon a time far away”. The romantic diction of the poem also reinforces the speaker's argument. By addressing Annabel Lee as a "maiden" in lines three and
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