Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

As you can see, the poet is never named and we do not know much about him, apart that he is in love, but Annabel is many times. Indeed her name is repeated at every stanza. The obsession that the poet feels for the young girl is reinforced by the use of the possessive adjective my (my darling, my life and my bride), even if there is not a precise description of Annabel in the poem.
What seems to matter here is the love they feel, and the repetitions of the word love tend to prove that it is the main theme of the poem. The narrator wants to emphasize this feeling and show how strong their relationship is, before and after death, revealing in the last lines that now that she is dead,

As early as the first lines of the poem we can feel that the relationship between the poet and his love cannot be compared to any other love. The story looks like a fairy tale where time and space are imaginary (It was many and many a year ago / In a kingdom by the sea) and where the lovers are confronted to forces of evil (seraphs, angels in Heaven, demons) which are too strong for them.
The poet places this love on such a scale that it is unattainable for any mortal, but he and Annabel are so closely linked that they can be compared to the equals of supernatural creatures because what they feel cannot reach a human heart. And of course their love, whatever may happen, will last forever. Neither the angels nor the demons will be able to change anything.

Though Annabel Lee is a poem about love, the story told by the narrator is quite dark. This paradox helps the reader understand that nothing is common here.
Indeed, even if the beginning reminds us of the romantic genre of the 19^th century (childhood love, considered as the purest time of life), the poem is soon filled with gothic images and fear replaces innocence:

• the angels are envious (a deadly sin) and kill Annabel,
• and the final part of the poem deals with demons, tombs and death.

The story has progressively moved from optimism and hope to pessimism and inevitable death.
As for nature, it clearly evokes the Gothic genre as it helps the poet to create a disturbing atmosphere:

• the sounding sea
• the moon never beams

Annabel Lee is a beautiful poem based on the love Edgar Allan Poe bore for a young woman. Was Annabel Lee his cousin Virginia whom he married when she was 13? It is most likely the case as Virginia became his muse and an important inspiration before she died of tuberculosis whereas she was only 25.