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Homework Help: ANNABEL LEE by Edgar Allan Poe

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hey there i'm carrie and in this video

i'm going to be talking about

annabelle lee a poem by edgar allan poe

that was published in 1849

so the way i'm going to do this is i'll

read through the full poem first because

it's not very long so if you just need

to listen to it for class that'll be

right up front

and then i'm going to go back and go

verse by verse and break it down

do some kind of analysis type of stuff

i'll have time stamps in the video notes

so definitely scroll down click around

find exactly what it is you need

and if you're looking for more specific

information on edgar allan poe himself

i've done a separate video on that and

i'll link that in the video notes as well

well

alright without further ado let's get

into annabelle lee

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 the 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 annabelle lee

so that her highborn kinsmen 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

when envying her in 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 annabelle lee

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

desever my soul from the soul of the

beautiful annabel lee

for the moon never beams without

bringing me dreams of the beautiful

annabelle lee

and the stars never rise but i feel the

bright eyes of the beautiful annabelle lee

lee

and so all the night tight i lie down by

the side of my darling

my darling my life and my bride in her

sepulcher there by the sea

in her tomb by the sounding sea

and that's it see told you wasn't very

long so now what i'm gonna do is i'm

gonna go back

to the beginning and go through it one

verse at a time there are six verses

so as i said this was published in 1849

it was actually published after poe's

death he had already passed away

but this is one of several poems about

grief um

specifically about losing a woman the

love of a person's life

and probably written in light of his

wife's death now also i want you to

remember that poe was very active in the gothic

gothic

and dark romance genres and you will see

both of those kind of come

come into this poem and influence the

narrative a little bit

so let's start at the beginning verse one

one

it was many in many a year ago in a

kingdom by the sea that a maiden there lived

lived

okay so gothic like i said so gothic is not

not

how we think of gothic today gothic

actually uh means it pertains to the

middle ages think

gothic architecture like the big

dramatic cathedrals and fortresses and

castles and things like that

so gothic fiction um usually

incorporates things like

kings and queens and knights and shining

armor and

fair maidens in ivory towers and things

like that so

we see some of those things here we've

got uh

in a kingdom by the sea there's a maiden

a beautiful young woman

who is going to be set upon by a dark

force so we've got the gothic

uh gothic influence in there um also

look at the very first line we say many

and many a year ago so we

know that this happened long in the past

for the speaker he's recounting

something that was a long time ago

okay verse two i was a child and she was

a child in this kingdom by the sea so

maybe this is some kind of uh childhood

sweetheart that he's talking about

uh we loved with a love that was more

than love so it doesn't matter that

we're young

and inexperienced it's pure and it's

powerful and it's love

i love that the winged seraphs of heaven coveted

coveted

now a seraph is an angel uh they're from

the bible

so actually serifs are only mentioned a

couple times in the bible and they're not

not

that big a deal but remember this is

gothic it relates to the middle ages and

in the middle ages

there was very in-depth complex belief

systems surrounding angels

and serifs were thought to be some of

the most powerful angels

um they were pure they were strong they

were fiery and they weren't like

chilling in heaven with their robes

playing their harps they had

things to do they were on missions you

know in heaven and on the earth so the serifs

serifs

serifs are extremely powerful uh so we

got the serifs of heaven

coveted her and me now the word covet a

lot of people use it to mean

jealous but it's actually stronger than

that it's kind of like

jealousy meets greed like you see something

something

and you want it um you're going to do whatever

whatever

it takes to get it no matter who that

thing actually belongs to whether or not

you've got the right

to take it you're going to do it so he's

saying that

our love was so strong and pure and

powerful that the angels themselves were jealous

jealous

and wanted it for themselves like if

that kind of love and devotion is not

going to be directed at

us the angels then it's not going to be

directed to anyone we're going to

shut this party down right now verse three

three

uh this was the reason the the covetousness

covetousness

uh this was the reason long ago in this

kingdom by the sea a wind blew out of a cloud

cloud

chilling my beautiful annabel lee so it

sounds like annabelle lee got sick she

died of some kind of

disease um so

the fact that he says a wind blew out of

the cloud

rather than saying something like the

cold blew out or the rain

or the scorching sun or something like

that he says

a wind i wonder um i think you could

make a case that this

is a reference to a respiratory disease

uh poe's

wife and his mother both died of

tuberculosis which is a lung infection

it's a lung disease so the fact that you know

know

the air in your lungs the wind is the

force of the air moving around you

i think you could kind of make a case

for that that um the fact that it's the wind

wind

that comes down and kills her this could

be some kind of

respiratory illness um let's see we've

got the word chilling my beautiful

annabel lee

so chilling could mean a couple of

different things here first there's

obviously the literal like oh the wind's

blowing i'm chilly

um also the chills are a symptom of a fever

fever

symptom of an infection i don't know the

science behind this but i do know

that like when you've got a fever like

your body temperature goes up but you feel

feel

colder for some reason you get the

chills so that could be a reference to a fever

fever

it could also just be a reference to

death itself

she's chilled because the warmth the

warmth of her body is leaving her she's

dying and her body

is getting cold her highborn

kinsmen came so we've got another

reference to the gothic genre here we've

got some

nobles some aristocrats coming in

highborn means

aristocratic like socially above the

fact that the narrator

notes that annabelle lee's family is highborn

highborn

kind of makes me think he probably isn't

she is probably socially superior to him

and maybe this is some kind of forbidden

romance maybe this is a relationship

that was not supposed to happen

kinsmen means relative so this is

probably her father and brothers coming

to transport her body for burial

and let's see her kinsmen came and bore

her away from me so they separated us

again that could be that could be an

implication that this is

some kind of forbidden relationship um

because he's talking about like

they're taking her away they're

splitting us up

uh shut her up in a sepulcher in this

kingdom by the sea

a sepulcher is a tomb or a mausoleum

it's a burial place

verse four the angels not half so happy

in heaven so this is kind of a repeat of

the second verse

um he's repeating that the angels the

seraphs were jealous

and uh that they killed her on purpose

um and he's saying like he's very

he's getting dramatic about it he's like

everybody knows it everybody knows

that's what happened is that they just

wanted to take her away from me

let's get into verse five our love it

was stronger by far than the love of

those who were

older than we of many far wiser than we

so he's going like full romeo and juliet

here he's like

yes we're young and inexperienced but

our love is more powerful and more pure than

than

any of you can understand and neither

the angels in heaven above

nor the demons down under the sea this

is dark romance that's a romance with

supernatural elements so he's already

mentioned the angels several times now

we've got the demons coming in uh this

is the first time first and only time he

mentions demons

and he says that they're down under the

sea um i don't think he's referring to

like ocean monsters i think it's just

because she is buried by the sea

that's annabelle lee's burial spot and so

the sea reminds him of her death he

doesn't have any positive connotations

with the sea so i think that's why he

associates the sea with demons neither

the angels in heaven above nor the

demons down under the sea

can ever disever my soul from the soul

of the beautiful annabel lee

so what he's saying is here um your plan

didn't work

our souls are still bonded together and

you know you didn't you didn't succeed

we are still together

the word dissever means to split two

things apart

it literally means the same thing as

sever dis ever and sever

mean the same thing i don't know why all

right verse six

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

annabelle lee

so um if you remember back in the first

verse who says

it was many and many a year ago so this

happened a long time ago

but the narrator the speaker has never

forgotten her he is still

thinking of her all these years later uh

moon and star so this is at night so

maybe he has other obligations during

the day maybe he

even is married with a family but uh

she is the one that still has his heart

he still dreams of her he still

thinks of her and so all the night tied

nighttime just means nighttime i lie

down by the side of my darling so he

sleeps by her tomb

there by the sea and her sepulcher there

by the sea

again sepulcher is his burial place in

her in her tomb

by the sounding c um now i looked it up

and apparently

sounding is not original to the poem

apparently poe originally wrote in her

tomb by the side of the c

which makes perfect sense and i don't

know why people would have changed it

but you do usually see sounding now

sounding has a couple different meanings

it has its literal meaning like

something that makes noise like if you

say i'm gonna sound off about this i'm

gonna talk about it i'll make some noise

um sounding is also a nautical term it's

a technique for measuring the depth of water

water

so i mean i yeah it's poetic i i get why

it's in there i just

i think they could have left it alone personally

personally

all right that's about all i've got on

annabel lee i hope you found some of

that helpful if you did definitely

please like and subscribe so you can next

know when the next story or poem becomes

available if you had a different author

or story that you're interested in

definitely drop that in the comments and

i'll see what i can do

and yeah best of luck to you and i'll

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Homework Help: ANNABEL LEE by Edgar Allan Poe