Annabel Lee
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 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.
"Annabel Lee" is the last poem composed by Edgar Allan Poe, one of the foremost figures of American literature. It was written in 1849 and published not long after the author's death in the same year. It features a subject that appears frequently in Poe's writing: the death of a young, beautiful woman. The poem is narrated by Annabel Lee's lover, who forcefully rails against the people—and supernatural beings—who tried to get in the way of their love. Ultimately, the speaker claims that his bond with Annabel Lee was so strong that, even after her death, they are still together.
Summary
Many years ago, there was a kingdom by the sea. In this kingdom lived a young woman called Annabel Lee, whom the speaker suggests the reader might know. According to the narrator, Annabel Lee's only ever thought about the love between them.
They were both children, but their love went well beyond what love can normally be. In fact, this love was so special that the angels of heaven were jealous and desirous of it.
For that reason, back then, Annabel Lee was killed by wind from a cloud. She was then taken away by people the narrator calls "highborn kinsmen," who could be the angels or Annabel Lee's own family members. They enclosed her in a tomb, still within the same kingdom.
Retrospectively, the speaker believes that the angels, unhappy in heaven and envious of the love between him and Annabel Lee, caused the wind that killed her.
Their love, says the speaker, was more powerful than the love between people older and wiser than them. Furthermore, no angel from heaven or demon under the sea could ever separate his soul from Annabel Lee's.
Every time the moon shines, it brings the speaker dreams of his beloved. When the stars rise, he can sense her sparkling eyes. Every night the speaker lies down alongside Annabel Lee—whom he calls his "life" and "bride"—in her tomb, with the sound of the sea coming from nearby.
Themes
Love
“Annabel Lee” tells the story of young love cut short by tragedy. As the speaker (often assumed to be based on Poe himself, whose young wife died shortly before he wrote this poem) discusses his relationship with the now-deceased Annabel Lee, he presents the love between them as pure, eternal, and all-conquering. The love between the speaker and Annabel Lee may have been short-lived, but it remains too powerful to be defeated, even by death. Through describing this intensely idealized love, the poem argues that love is the strongest force on earth.
The speaker establishes from the beginning that there was something magic about his and Annabel Lee's love. The opening stanza sounds like the beginning of a fairy tale, giving the poem a supernatural atmosphere. The first stanza places the story "many and a year ago"—like the classic "once upon a time"—which helps to underline the way in which this love is in part defined by its ability to survive eternally. As the poem progresses, the speaker builds his case for the rare power of this love, insisting on his conviction that his soul will never be separated from Annabel Lee's (line 32), which again highlights the idea of eternal survival against the odds.
In fact, this love was and is so powerful (according to the speaker) that it goes beyond the normal limits of how other people experience love. Lines 5 and 6 portray Annabel Lee's entire existence as built around her love for the speaker. Line 9 develops this further idea, paradoxically suggesting that their love was "more" than love itself. Indeed, not only does their love go beyond other loves, it also transcends the earthly realm. Their love is so pure that even angels envy the young lovers (lines 21-22). Angels are normally morally good creatures, but here it's as if seeing something even more good than themselves (the lovers' extraordinary love) makes them jealous and even murderous. This remarkable change shows that this love can alter even the powerful rules of the spiritual realm, and what's more, it conquers the vengeful angels themselves in the end--they kill Annabel Lee, but the speaker still claims that he and Annabel Lee will be linked forever (line 32). Throughout, the speaker contends that love will ultimately triumph over everything else.
Though all this discussion of love's power seems beautiful and romantic, it also hints at a darker possibility: at times, the speaker's love seems to have overwhelmed even his own sanity. The speaker has clearly been traumatized by the loss of Annabel Lee, and his ceaseless insistence on the supernatural power of their love can be read as a window into a troubled or even obsessive mind. For example, in the final stanza the speaker says that he is unable to experience the moon, stars, or sea without being consumed by thoughts of Annabel Lee. Furthermore, he claims to lie down beside Annabel Lee's body every night--an unsettling image, if taken literally. On the one hand, these lines are a moving demonstration of the speaker's undying love, but on the other, they are a troubling picture of how love's power can actually destroy those who experience it. This suggestion of insanity also casts some doubt on the speaker's romantic claims; if his memories are clouded by some kind of madness, then was his love really as wonderful as he says?
Part of poem’s power, then, lies in its resistance to a single clear interpretation. It is an expression of the beauty of love and an examination of the intense (and perhaps troubling) way it can affect people.
Death and Grief
“Annabel Lee” takes up a common subject in Edgar Allan Poe’s writing: the death of a beautiful young woman. It portrays this as the most tragic death of all—robbing the world of youth, beauty and innocence. The tragedy of this loss is mostly explored through the portrayal of the narrator's grief, which colors every line of the poem. The poem shows the way grief attaches itself to a person and refuses to let go, an experience intensified here by the added tragedy of a life cut short. The poem doesn’t make a clear, neat argument about death and grief—and in a way, that’s the point. Grief is disorientating and overpowering, and the poem embodies this from start to finish.
The speaker is completely defined by the death of his lover. They were children when they met and the speaker seems to have remained locked in this childhood love throughout his life. That is, as the poem unfolds line after line, it becomes clear that there's only one thought in the speaker's mind: "the beautiful Annabel Lee." This grief defines not just the speaker's past, but his present and future as well. To him, the entire world and all of nature are nothing more than reminders of Annabel Lee: the chilly atmosphere of moonbeams, starlight and the sea are all eternally linked to his lover. As he tells the reader, his soul will never "dissever" from Annabel Lee's; that is, he will be connected to her forever, which means that grief will rule his world forever. The state of grief is presented as being just as unchangeable as the state of death. That's why every other line either ends in "Annabel Lee" or rhymes with her name—the speaker's mind keeps circling back to the trauma of losing someone so young and beautiful. At play here, too, is the Romantic idea of innocence. Annabel Lee's youth and beauty make her pure, and her death both compounds the poem's sense of tragedy and preserves her in this eternal youthful beauty.
Another key element of the poem is the way in which the narrator's grief seems to have no possible outlet. Whereas some grief-stricken people might turn to family or spirituality for solace, the narrator can do no such thing. Any possible comfort from religion has been destroyed by the angels' role in Annabel Lee's death—he believes that their jealousy and malice killed her. Likewise, if "highborn kinsmen" (line 17) is taken to refer to Annabel Lee's family, the narrator has no positive connection with them either; he mentions only that they took her away. He also disparages the "older" and "wiser" people in his world (lines 28-29), saying that they wouldn't understand the perfect young love he shared with Annabel Lee. In other words, he is entirely isolated—suggesting perhaps that the pain of losing a loved one can be made even worse by feeling alone in that pain.
The poem ultimately seems to suffocate under the pressure of this endless grief, with no suggestion of a way out. In fact, the poem’s conclusion shows the speaker’s environment merging with his grief. The moon and the stars exist only to bring back memories of Annabel Lee. The sea, too, is defined by his grief—its constant “sounding” underscoring the eternal silence of his deceased lover. In the end, the speaker says that he joins Annabel Lee in her tomb, and though it's unclear whether he does so literally or only figuratively (by feeling as if he is lying there beside her), it's nonetheless certain that the speaker is emotionally imprisoned by his grief.
애너벨 리
아주 여러 해 전
바닷가 어느 왕국에
당신이 아는지도 모를 한 소녀가 살았지.
그녀의 이름은 애너벨 리─
날 사랑하고 내 사랑을 받는 일밖엔
소녀는 아무 생각도 없이 살았네.
바닷가 그 왕국에선
그녀도 어렸고 나도 어렸지만
나와 나의 애너벨 리는
사랑 이상의 사랑을 하였지.
천상의 날개 달린 천사도
그녀와 나를 부러워할 그런 사랑을.
그것이 이유였지, 오래전,
바닷가 이 왕국에선
구름으로부터 불어온 바람이
나의 애너벨 리를 싸늘하게 했네.
그래서 명문가 그녀의 친척들은
그녀를 내게서 빼앗아 갔지.
바닷가 왕국
무덤 속에 가두기 위해.
천상에서도 반쯤밖에 행복하지 못했던
천사들이 그녀와 날 시기했던 탓.
그렇지! 그것이 이유였지(바닷가 그 왕국 모든 사람들이 알 듯).
한밤중 구름으로부터 바람이 불어와
그녀를 싸늘하게 하고
나의 애너벨 리를 숨지게 한 것은.
하지만 우리들의 사랑은 훨씬 강한 것
우리보다 나이 먹은 사람들의 사랑보다도─
우리보다 현명한 사람들의 사랑보다도─
그래서 천상의 천사들도
바다 밑 악마들도
내 영혼을 아름다운 애너벨 리의 영혼으로부터 떼어내지는 못했네.
달도 내가 아름다운 애너벨 리의 꿈을 꾸지 않으면 비치지 않네.
별도 내가 아름다운 애너벨 리의 빛나는 눈을 보지 않으면 떠오르지 않네.
그래서 나는 밤이 지새도록
나의 사랑, 나의 사랑, 나의 생명, 나의 신부 곁에 누워만 있네.
바닷가 그곳 그녀의 무덤에서─
파도 소리 들리는 바닷가 그녀의 무덤에서.
에드거 앨런 포(Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-49)는 미국의 소설가, 시인, 문학비평가이다. 시인으로 잘 알려졌지만, 단편소설로도 높은 평가를 받고 있다.
단편소설 "검은 고양이"와 같은 신비하고 공포를 불러 일으키는 작품 경향이 있으며, 특히 "모르그 가의 살인사건"은 근대 추리소설의 원조라고 할 수 있다.
1849년 발표된 이 시는 '갈까마귀' (The Raven)와 함께 포의 대표적 명시이다. 젊은 나이에 사망한 아내를 추모하여 쓴 시로 추정되고 있다. 부인 버지니아 클렘은 14세 때 15세 연상인 포와 결혼했으나 결혼 생활 내내 가난과 폐결핵으로 고생하다 20대에 죽었다.