Sunday, April 05, 2009

Edgar Allan Poe - Annabel Lee

While many know Poe for his macabre and Gothic style of writings, like The Cask of Amontillado and The Pit and the Pendulum, he also wrote poetry in much the same style. Here, the last poem he ever wrote.

Annabel Lee

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 winged 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 kinsman 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 the sepulchre there by the sea,

In her tomb by the sounding sea.



Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death JFic Poe WMB


18 Best Stories YA Fic Poe WCV


Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque Fic Poe WDB


The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe Fic Poe WAM

2 comments:

Rob Velella said...

I would have assumed that a library could correctly spell the name of such an important author! His name is Edgar Allan Poe. Also, so far as I know, "Annabel Lee" is not considered the last poem he wrote. He handed it off to be published before his death but it was not published until two days after he died. The timing of publication and composition, nevertheless, are two very different things.

Warren Public Library said...

Rob - Thanks for the correction!

According to the Poe Society of Baltimore, both "Annabel Lee" and "The Bells" are alternately given the status of Poe's last poem; but "Annabel Lee" and "Sonnet to My Mother" are considered the last composed.