Themes And Symbolism In Edgar Allan Poe's Annabel Lee

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Edgar Allan Poe created many poems in his lifetime about the how gloom and melancholy life was in his eyes. One of his most caring and important poem he ever made was for his dead wife Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe. She was his everything and this poem was made for the great change he experienced in life. Edgar Allan Poe use of repetition, metaphor and romantic elements helps create a tragic and romantic mood for the speaker which conveys his love for his wife even after her death in the poem “Annabel Lee.” He was never able to find asylum after this tragedy and died young and miserable.

Repetition in the poem help creates a remembrance and symbolism. One of the statements that are constantly repeated throughout the poem is “Annabel Lee.” This
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One symbol is the “Highborn Kinsmen” which is located in the third stanza. “Highborn Kinsmen” symbolizes the taking away of Annabel Lee and keeping them apart. He shows up, takes her away and shuts her in a tomb. Since he’s a kinsmen he must be someone in his or her family and doesn’t want them to be together. He could be a father, brother or someone else. This could also be an allusion to the story of “Romeo and Juliet.” This adds to the tragic mood as he is the one responsible for taking away Annabel and ruining the narrator 's love with her. Another symbol is the "sepulchre," it symbolizes death and the horror that comes from it. It appears twice in the poem, first in the third stanza and the second in the last stanza. A sepulchre is a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried. In other words, it is a decorated tomb in which you bury someone in. In the third stanza, it symbolizes how quickly death happens. In that whole stanza, she was taken away and then placed in a grave from kinsmen. He uses the word “shut her up” as harsh to make the tomb seem more like a prison instead of a grave. In the second stanza in which it appears, it replaces the word “kingdom” to show how the poem has changed. The kingdom symbolized the life and protection and then the sepulchre represents death and …show more content…
Romanticism is the idea that feelings, dreams and emotion are more important that logic and analysis. Also, romanticism also carries the idea that an individual’s feeling are more important than traditions of religion or society. The whole poem is about an individual’s feelings, emotions and so many other things. The first example of this is when the poem says "the winged seraphs [angels] of Heaven / Coveted her and me." he states that the angels were jealous of their love and they were the ones to take her away. This goes into romanticism as the person’s feeling are more important than religion. He feels special that the angels above are jealous of him. Also, this adds to the romantic mood because of how it’s a forbidden love. In the last stanza, the poet writes “For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I see the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;” This is not logical at all and it fits perfectly into romanticism as these are his dreams and imagination. This description of his love follows almost that of hyperbole, but it just proves how he has a great feeling of love for this person. Adding to the romantic mood as well because this is just like writing a love letter. The poem was very insightful and gives the feeling of knowing forbidden

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