Tuesday, 5 January 2010

What are the subject, tone, and mood of "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe?

Edgar Allen
Poe's poem "" tells the tale of an unnamed narrator who falls in love with a beautiful
woman named Annabel Lee. This romance takes place in a "kingdom by the sea" and begins
when the two lovers are quite young. Despite their age, they love fiercely. Tragically, the
relationship is cut short by Annabel Lee's death, and her family takes her body away to have it
buried. Still, the narrator cannot forget the woman.

Although it begins
cheerfully enough, both the tone and mood of this poem turn quickly toward the gloomy, morose,
and somber. The poem deals, like so much of Poe's work, with untimely death and with the feeling
of being "haunted." We can see this in both the subject matter and the word choice
used ("chilling and killing," "dissever my soul," "demons down under
the sea," and so on).

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