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 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 her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Analyzing Annabel Lee from Romanticism perspective

Annabel Lee is a poem by a well-known and great poet, Edgar Allan Poe. By
brief looking at Poe's life, it's obvious that this poem is about a woman who beloved
by him. Her real name was Virginia, the real wife of Poe, and now in this poem, he
named her Annabel Lee. Virginia was his thirteen years old cousin, whom with her
mother, Mrs. Clemm lived with Poe. Poe falls in love with Virginia and decides to get
marry her. It's a kind of strange marriage because they have fourteen years old
distance in their age, not only this distance never makes their heart to be away from
each other, but also it causes a big love as Poe himself mentions that their love was
an exceptional love in that era. Their love was in such a way that the poet declares
angels and demons make envy for them and their deep love, and that's the cause of
death of Virginia indeed.

This poem was written in 1849, celebrates the poet's love for Virginia who
died on January 30, in 1847. Poe married her eleven years before, in 1836. Poe lost
his mother in his childhood and he had been looking for solace and comfort from a
woman that everyone can easily receive from his own mother. During his life, Poe
always sought female fellowship and intimacy; and required the warmth of house
and family. Unfortunately, this happiness didn't stabilize and in 1842 Virginia became
seriously ill. Her disease was very worse and according to a biographer, she suffered
from bronchitis. In 1846, her condition became risky and dangerous and Virginia was
beyond human aid. And finally, she died in 1847 and left Poe in this world with large
grief and loneliness. Virginia's death was another misery that befell Poe.

Subject-Matter of Annabel Lee from Romanticism perspective

The subject matter of "Annabel Lee" is eternal and everlasting love of Poe for
his wife, Virginia. In his poem Poe represents his love for Virginia so deeply that it
made the angels in God's heaven to be envy of them. He thinks that the reason of
his beloved's death was the envy of heaven's angels. But by her death, Poe claims
that neither demons down to hell nor angels up to heaven can separate their soul
from each other.

He declares that every night, when the moon is shining in the sky, Poe
dreams his beautiful beloved wife, Annabel Lee. And when the stars begin ta appear,
he sees the bright eyes of pretty Annabel Lee in them. Poe declares that all night he
sleeps side by side of his life, his bride, his darling Annabel Lee, whose body lies
buried in a shrine next to the sea. 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 (Poe, 1998). In the poem the line of "in this kingdom by the
sea" is a refrain that is repeated. This is so fanciful but maybe Poe by using this
refrain wants to describe the world in which he and his wife, Virginia, lived is like
"kingdom by the sea". The most obvious element and feature of "Annabel Lee" is its
force of emotion. This intensity is more noticeable in some lines among the poem
which Poe refers to his love to Annabel Lee and her love for him as an exceptional
one. Their love had such an intensity which the heavenly angels became jealous of
them and their special love. The fancifulness of "Annabel Lee" is considered again
when Poe claims that neither evils in hell nor angels in heaven can make the
separation between their souls. He uses some imaginary picture when he says that
by the rising moon in the sky he dreams pretty Annabel Lee and by rising stars, he
sees the bright and beautiful eyes of his darling. By using a lovely conceit, Poe
sleeps all nights side by side Virginia who is lied buried in a close to the sea shrine,
closed his emotion arousal poem. His favorite poetic theme is the death of a
beautiful woman. He uses his past memories of didn't have a lovely mother, and this
leads his pen in writing poems and picture the present situation.

Conclusion

Annabel Lee is a poem by Edgar Allan Poe who, from Romanticism view, says this
poem for his darling, Virginia. Virginia was her thirteen years old cousin, who
beloved by Poe and at end they got married. Romanticism analyzes the poem
regarding to the sensation and fancies which is used by author. For them, poem is
full of imagination and a real reader is one who analyzes poem by imagination which
is in. From New Criticism perspective, this poem should not read by attention to
author's intentions and interests. They believe that a piece of art should be
understood by finding the relationship between the words and signs and what they
signified. So in analyzing a poem these two schools perspectives are really different
from each other
The Seven Ages of Man

JACQUES
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Analyzing “ Seven Ages of Man from New Criticism perspective

 Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages of Man” is an analogy of the different phases of
life that a man goes through during a lifetime. The use of imagery, metaphor, and
simile are the strongest figures of speech used to drive home the message of the
passage. He starts out with describing the common actions and conditions in which
we all find ourselves as a baby who is dependent on a mother figure, then he moves
on to describe what each stage thereafter looks and acts like in its own time thereby
making his way to the end of a person’s life. Some examples of figures of speech
used include, “the whining school boy,” then, “Sighing like a furnace,” “Bearded like
the pard,” “round belly,” “beard of formal cut,” “and his big manly voice,/ Turning
again towards childish treble,” all discuss by simile and metaphor the phases of a
man’s life. It all ends with the man in a “second” childhood by the time he is old and
loses everything from his teeth, to sight, to taste and everything else.

The timeline is organized in a way that the audience may follow easily through
the passage of a man’s life; and, he uses the rhythm of iambic pentameter, but the
structure is not limited to ten syllables of stressed and unstressed accents.

The Tone of Seven Ages of Man:

This narrative poem which is a soliloquy in nature is an extended metaphor. Jaques,

the speaker of these lines has a cynical tone and is often being melodramatic. The
formula used by Jaques is a major overgeneralization of human life, which is too
widely generalized and demonstrably untrue. However, a softness and calmness can
also be easily deciphered in the tone of the speaker.