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RSS Feed Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe: Love, Death & a Kingdom by the Sea
In a kingdom by the sea, a grieving lover insists that neither jealous angels nor death can separate his soul from Annabel Lee.
Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” remembers a love that began when its two subjects were young and became so powerful that even heaven seemed to envy it. A cold wind takes Annabel Lee’s life, and her highborn relatives seal her in a tomb beside the sea. The narrator rejects the idea that burial can end their bond, returning night after night to a love he believes is stronger than angels, demons, distance, or death itself.
The poem’s musical repetition and fairy-tale setting make its grief feel timeless, but its romance carries a distinctly Gothic edge. Devotion becomes obsession; the moon, stars, sea, and sepulchre all keep the dead woman physically present in the speaker’s world. Poe leaves listeners between tenderness and unease, unsure whether they are hearing perfect fidelity, unbearable mourning, or both at once.
Completed near the end of Poe’s life and published in 1849, “Annabel Lee” remains one of his best-known poems. This spoken-word reading is for listeners seeking classic Gothic romance, poetry about grief, love beyond the grave, supernatural jealousy, and the unforgettable kingdom by the sea.
This episode is sponsored by HenFlix.com.
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One of my favorite memories of scaring
myself as a child was getting a compilation
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book of Edgar Allan Poe's stories from
my elementary school library. It brought me
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so much fear and so much excitement. I remember running home from school with
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that book in my backpack as the
sky was dark and a storm was coming.
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I was in my childhood living room, but I wasn't alone. I
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had a pizza and the books of
Poe. Every so often I'll bring you
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a tale of Poe, and I
hope it gives you that scary fun sense,
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just the same as it does for
me. When the clock strikes midnight,
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the story will begin. Annabelle Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe. It was
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many, many a year ago,
in a kingdom by the sea, that
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a maiden there lived, whom you
may know by the name of Annabelle Lee.
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And this maiden she lived with no
other thought than to love and be
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loved by me. I was a
child and she was a child in this
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kingdom by the sea. But we
loved with a love that was more than
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love. I and my annabel Lee, with a love that the winged seraphs
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in heaven coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that long ago,
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in this kingdom by the sea,
a wind blew out of a cloud,
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chilling my beautiful Annabel Lee, so
that her high born kinsman came and
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bore her away from me, to
shut her up in a sepulture in this
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kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
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went envying her and me. Yes, that was the reason, as all
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men know, in this kingdom by
the sea, that the wind came out
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of the cloud by night, chilling
and killing my Annabel Lee. But our
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love it was stronger by far than
the love of those who were older than
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we, of many far wiser than
we. And neither the angels in heaven
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above nor the demons down under the
sea, can ever dissever my soul from
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the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee. For the moon never beams without bringing
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me dreams of the beautiful Annabel Lee, and the stars never rise. But
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I feel the bright eyes of the
beautiful Annabel Lee. And so all the
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night tide I lie down by the
side of my darling, my darling,
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my life, and my bride in
sepulture there by the sea, in her
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tomb, by the sounding sea
