Maybe the poem is about an earlier love, or perhaps it is purely fictional, but addressing Annabel Lee as his "life and his bride" in line thirty-eight and writing it two years after his beloved young wife's death, it is seems logical that it is indeed written about her and is simply embellished with a bit of poetic license. .
Virginia fought long and hard because of Poe. I believe that she didn't want to leave him behind. But against all valiant efforts she did in fact die. When she died Poe died with her. He went crazy after her death. Courting many women but never marring any. He finally died and was found in a gutter. No one knows quite what happened to him. Some say that he was beaten to death, others say that he died of alcohol poisoning, and still others say that he died of rabies. No matter how he died, he lived and died loving his beloved Annabel Lee, Virginia.
The poet looks back into the distant past to a time in a kingdom by the sea where he and his lover Annabel Lee lived. They were both very young but their love was so great that even the winged seraphs of Heaven, the highest rank of angels, envied them for it. And then death came to Annabel Lee, and her kinsmen carried her to her grave. The poet attributes her death to the envious angels and vows that no power can separate her soul from his. He remembers her always and sleeps by the side of her tomb every night when the moon and the stars together remind him of her. Even death cannot demolish their love, and he loves her in spite of her death. It is important to note that the very opening of the poem--It was many and many a year ago, suggests a tale told many times. Many of the oldest folk tales and legends tell the story of two young lovers separated by fate of families.
The poem starts with Poe looking back on the life of him and his bride and right here he sets the pace for the rest of the poem by using a very even rhythm.
