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Edgar Allan Poe's Annabel Lee

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The Afterlife and the Elegy through the eyes of “Anabel Lee” The narrator becomes increasingly agitated and despairing as he begins to believe the fiction of death and questions the afterlife. Poe sets the poem "Annabel Lee" as a hopeful poem that love conquers all. It is a narrative poem; that also possesses qualities of Gothic poetry. The first four lines of the six-line first stanza are written in the traditional ballad stanza form. The language, too, is conventional for a ballad. The poem specifically mentions the youth of the unnamed narrator and especially of “Annabel Lee”, and it celebrates child-like emotions in a way consistent with the ideals of the Romantic era. Poe reflects Romanticism by using The theme is eternal love, …show more content…

In “Annabel Lee”, the narrator describes a love that he and the young maiden “Annabel Lee” have for each other as so great the angels in heaven blow a cold wind out of a cloud that makes “Annabel Lee” sick and eventually kills her. It is said that love conquers all but in reality death ultimately conquers all. The speaker in this poem is distraught and obsessed about how and why his precious maiden died. He wants to know who he can blame and will willing blame anyone. The poem forces its reader to question; does death have the power to kill love? The two main characters loved each other, in a childish manor. They loved before they even knew the world because of how young their love was. Young love is often just lust or infatuation XXX young people who aren't even sure who they are and don't know what real love is may confuse their strong feelings of attraction for love. Young love is dramatic, feverish, passionate, impetuous, impatient, and irrational. A "crush" can be so intense that it feels like love but it's a fantasy not based on …show more content…

While there is no definite way to know if Poe really believed in an afterlife we can take a closer look into a select number of his stories and some works of other scholars as well, and we can come to a strongly supported theory that comes pretty close. Poe is a very dark writer, we also see this in “The Raven” the difference (major) between the two poems is that “The Raven” clearly is stating that his love is forever gone and they can never be reunited. Whereas in “Annabel Lee” the speaker is convinced that even though his love lies in her tomb they will be reunited one day. They will have to defeat demons and even though the poem does not have a happy ending there is a smidge of hope that the two will be together once again, someday. This is love is so strong and powerful that angels are envious of it and even with death he still retains his love and always

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