Annabel Lee - By: Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe's last poem, Annabel Lee, is one of my very favorite poems.  There is a mystery about it, and I do love a good mystery.

Some people say Annabel Lee was written about his wife Virginia Poe whom he lost two years before the poem was written.  Virginia certainly was his beautiful bride, and they did fall in love as children. 

Virginia Poe

But there is a story in Charleston, SC about a sailor whose beautiful sweetheart, Annabel Lee, died of yellow fever while he was away at sea, and I, personally, think Mr. Poe may have heard this story when he was in the army and stationed at Sullivan's Island near Charleston, SC in 1827.  Like most Charleston residents, I like to think Charleston is the "Kingdom by the Sea," and I love the mystery of the beautiful Annabel Lee.  Who was she really?  Did Poe really pine for her?  Was Charleston the "Kingdom by the Sea?"

You decide. 

Today I'm reading the poem for you, and I'll also include the words below.  Enjoy!



Annabel Lee   By Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
   In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
   By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
   Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
   I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
   Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
   My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
   And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
   In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
   Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
   In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
   Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
   Of those who were older than we—
   Of many far wiser than we—
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;

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, 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—
   In her tomb by the sounding sea.