Written Word Week: Love Poem

My mom had this book that always looked really old and ornate and well loved. It was a book of poetry that belonged to her father, my poppy. He had marked his favorite ones. One of them became my favorite poem. I even memorized it in the fifth grade for a poetry assignment where we had a poetry day/ coffee house in our classroom. (Everyone dressed up like poets- long skirts, scarves, thick rimmed glasses- we strung tea lights, and lit candles and served muffins and hot chocolate and invited our parents and each student got to pick any poem they wanted to recite). The poem I chose is by Edgar Allen Poe, whose work was usually dark, creepy and haunting. And while this poem is still haunting, it is a love story, tragic and beautiful.

Annabelle Lee
Edgar Allen 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 kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulcher
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 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 the sepulcher there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.


Comments

  1. Annabelle Lee is my favorite poem also! :) I love it's haunting and eery beauty.

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  2. aw...makes me think of my Dad...it always will.

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