When reading poetry, there are times when poems are open to interpretation. A reader may think a poem a means something very different than what another reader may take it to mean. After reviewing a couple of analyses of the poem "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe, I formed my own opinion of what the poem means to me. .
While reading the analyses, an important statement was mentioned about Edgar Allan Poe. Poe stated in "The Poetic Principle" that a concept of beauty can only be brought on by "excitement of the soul" or extreme emotion. In "Annabel Lee" Poe uses sadness as the emotion bringing beauty to the poem (Ebeling). .
In the beginning of the poem, the speaker is talking about Annabel Lee in such a way that the poem is taken to be just an little love poem. However, towards the end, the poem shifts tones to obsession. I came to the conclusion that he was obsessed about Annabel Lee because of how he says he sleeps by the side of her dead body. Normally people do not want to sleep next to a dead body even if it is the body of a person they love. I have included a segment of the poem were the tone shifts to obsession:.
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 see 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 side of the sea. .
The use of repeating Annabel Lee's name gives off an obsessive vibe in which the speaker can only focus on her beauty and how his soul cannot be torn from hers. He is so sad about Annabel Lee's death that he sleeps with her at night in her tomb because it is the only way to relieve his broken heart. This is where Poe has the speaker find comfort in the death of his love (Ebeling).