Thursday 20 August 2009

What are words that describe the setting in "Annabel Lee"?

boxergrad15

The
beginning lines give us the basic setting. We hear from the speaker that the poem is set in a
kingdom near the ocean, which seems to invoke the idea of a monarchical and feudal territory,
therefore setting the story in a specific period of the European past:

"It was many and many a year ago,
In a
kingdom by the sea..."
Other indicators,
such as "I was a child and she was a child," perpetuate the idea that the setting is
harking back to a past event, andsuch as "highborn kinsmen" perpetuates the idea of
the feudal time period.
But the poem
focuses in to the speaker's present at the very end of the poem when he states:
"For the moon never beams, without bringing
me dreams
Of the beautiful ;
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 darlingmy darlingmy life and my bride,
In her sepulchre
there by the sea
In her tomb by the sounding sea."
Here, it becomes clear that the speaker is not just in the
kingdom, he is with Annabel Lee's body in her tombin the "sepulchre there by the sea."
These details offer the chilling detail that the speaker has indeed not been separated from his
love, that he visits her body and looks into her eyes at night even though she is
deceased.
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