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ANNABEL LEE, STANZA FOUR LINES 21-26 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - His first collection of poems, Tamerlane, and Other Poems (1827), went unnoticed.
    - - Over the next decade, Poe became an editor for several prestigious literary magazines, including the Southern Literary Messenger, Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, and Graham’s Magazine.
    - - during this time, he established himself as a poet and short story writer, publishing classics such as "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and the famous poem "The Raven."
  - - - Following the death of his wife Virginia from tuberculosis in 1847, Poe struggled severely with depression and alcoholism.
    - - He was found in a state of semi-consciousness on October 3, 1849, in Baltimore, and died four days later. The cause of death remains unconfirmed (often attributed to acute congestion of the brain, or possibly rabies, according to some theories).
- - - - Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride
        
        Because their love is unbroken, because they can't be separated by death, our speaker spends his
        
        nights curled up next to Annabel's dead body.
        
        • He follows it up by telling us that she is his darling, his life, and his bride. Now he has officially
        
        called her his bride, giving the sense not only of innocent childhood love, but also of a life-long
        
        commitment.
        
        • The speaker seems increasingly obsessed and unbalanced as the poem goes on, and this is what it
        
        all leads to. He is half-alive and half-dead, sleeping in a tomb by the ocean.
        
        • Poe leaves us with one last haunting phrase, "the sounding sea," which makes us think of the
        
        booming roar of the ocean, suddenly terrifying and cold. There's definitely no happy ending
        
        here.
      - In her sepulchre there by the sea,
      - In her tomb by the sounding sea
- - - - Inthese lines, there is an abrupt shift. This is no longer
        
        a common fairy tale.
        
        • Suddenly, Annabel Lee catches a cold from a “wind
        
        that blew out of a cloud”.
        
        • The speaker attributes the reason for this cold to the
        
        covetousness of the angels. He explains that their
        
        feelings of jealousy were in fact “the reason that…a
        
        wind blew out of a cloud, chilling my beautiful
- - - - • He tells us how the family "bore" (that just means "carried") her away from him.
      - feels she is being stolen from him.
      - going on with the family, you can feel the speaker's pain at losing Annabel, and you can tell that he
      - • Maybe even before she died there were problems in his relationship with Annabel Lee. Whatever is
      - this.
      - aristocratic, noble. If the speaker himself were "highborn" he probably wouldn't think to mention
      - • Be sure to notice the word he uses to describe this kinsman. He calls him "highborn" which means
      - a member of her family) came and took her away from him.
      - Then, still without saying that she was dead, the speaker tells us how her "kinsman" (that just means
- - - - Even if death might seem to be the end of love, our speaker tells
        
        us that isn't the case for him and Annabel.
        
        • Even though they were young, that didn't stop them from loving
        
        completely, and from knowing what they wanted.
        
        • It leaves the readers with the understanding that this strong love
        
        will not be forgotten with her death.
- - - - He goes on to say that neither the angels in heaven or the
        
        demons who live under the water can stop their love. Nothing
        
        in heaven or hell can "dissever" (that means cut or separate) his
        
        soul and Annabel's soul.
        
        • The bottom line is that their love is eternal, and that nothing
        
        and no one can tear them apart.
- - - - Here's the proof that their love between the speaker and Annabel Lee isn't dead
        
        (at least in the mind of the speaker).
        
        • Notice that this stanza starts with a shift from the past tense into the present
        
        tense. He was telling a story about something that happened long ago, but now
        
        he's letting us know what's happening right now.
        
        • The descriptions of his current life
- - - - Whenever the moon shines, he dreams of Annabel Lee. Whenever the stars come out, he feels
        
        Annabel's eyes on him. This imagery is shared by many of Poe's poems and stories. His main
        
        characters are often haunted by dreams and visions of women that they loved. Most of the time,
        
        those women are dead but not gone.
        
        • Just notice how weird and intense these images are. He doesn't say: "When I see the stars, I think
        
        of her." He says that when the stars come out "I feel the bright eyes" of Annabel Lee. It's almost
        
        like her eyes are there, and are burning into him.