World Poetry Day: My Love for Annabel Lee

Today is a day of celebration, lyrical thought, and appreciation for one of my favorite things in the world POETRY! 

However I couldn’t celebrate this day without sharing my favorite poem from the master himself Edgar Allen Poe. 

Annabel Lee

By Edgar Allan 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 wingèd 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 kinsmen came 

   And bore her away from me, 

To shut her up in a sepulchre 

   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 it 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 her sepulchre there by the sea— 

   In her tomb by the sounding sea.
I LOVE this poem! This is the type of passion and love that I can celebrate. A love so powerful and so pure that even in death he stays with her. I love the youth of it and the passion of it and the beauty of its repetive yet slowly changing nature. I love the story. The jealous angels that took her away from him to have her for themselves. The melancholy and dark beauty of everything that surrounds this poem and how it makes my heart race just thinking about it. 

Poetry always gets to me, but nothing has made me stop in my tracks and made me feel as emotional as this poem has and it puts a smile on my face. 

As much as I wanted to write a poem for World Poetry Day I feel like it would do an injustice to the greatness of the poem I love so much, from a man who is an incredible inspiration to me. I’d call Poe a dark romantic. There is something so honest about his pieces and one day I will own a book of his complete works. 

Gosh I need to read more Poe! 

Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post and read Annabel Lee many many times (it is required reading). Happy World Poetry Day! Let me know what some of your favorite poems are! I’d love to read them!

-Till next time!