The Definition Of Love In Annabel Lee By Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809. Poe’s parents were traveling actors and died when he was only three years old. After his parent’s deaths, Poe went to live with John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan. From an early age Poe enjoyed writing poems and he, “dreamt of emulating his childhood hero, the British poet Lord Byron” (“Poe’s Biography”). In later years, Poe attended the University of Virginia, where he acquired a large amount of debt and struggled to stay warm in the winter. Unable to pay for his education Poe had no choice but to leave school and return home. Poe managed to publish his first book when he was eighteen years old. Although he lived in poverty, Poe continued to write short stories and have …show more content…
The narrorator, being Poe, may not be youthful in age, but he is in spirit. The two characters of the poem share a love that is unsullied and is thus a unique form of love. Poe viewed love as being, “ a spiritual passion that transcended human limits” (“Annabel Lee”). This form of love is the most pure and true form of love that can possibly be achieved. The fact that the lovers in the poem shared this form of love was the reason for the downfall of the beautiful Annabel Lee. The truest form of love causes people to be envious of others. Beauty and love are the two goal topics of poetry and Poe included both in “Annabel Lee” as it repeated throughout the poem. Although they are both goal topics, the greater of the two is love (“Annabel Lee”). For the duration of the poem the love that was had for Annabel Lee is the main focus and does not switch focuses until the fifth stanza of the poem. At this point of the poem it is known to the reader that Annabel Lee has died and Poe then refers to her as being beautiful (“Annabel Lee”). The reader can infer that Annabel Lee is beautiful, but she seems to gain a new embodiment of beauty in her death. Although the word “love” is weaved into the first five stanzas of the poem, the sixth stanza of the poem replaces it with the idea of beauty that the narrator creates. Johnson closes out her article with the statement, “though we may want to value the ethereal qualities of true love, its tangible elements are what we ultimately cherish most” (“Annabel Lee”). True love, if achieved, is beautiful but the death of a beautiful woman proves hard for the poet seeing that he will never be able to see or touch his beloved ever