Saturday, September 2, 2017

What lines inform of Annabel’s death in "Annabel Lee"?

In Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Annabel Lee," there are actually a few lines that convey the death of his beloved maiden whose only thought was to "love and be loved by" the speaker.
In stanza three, the tone shifts from one of adoration to a more somber reflection. In lines three and four in this stanza, he recalls,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;

A wind here is used symbolically to represent death. Clouds often represent an ominous force in nature, and this force chills, or takes the life from, Annabel Lee.

Next, the speaker notes the immediate course of action taken by her family:


So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,



Annabel Lee was from a prominent family, and it is conveyed in these lines that they do not look with favor upon the speaker. Note that he is not allowed to accompany them or follow his beloved. Instead, she is simply taken from him.

The end of this stanza explains what her family does with the body:


To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.



She is sealed in a tomb by the sea, and the speaker spends his nights at this tomb remembering the love he once shared with his beautiful Annabel Lee.

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