The following essay will examine the presentation of love in Edgar Allan Poe´s poem “Annabel Lee”. In that poem the lyric “I” presents love between two young people in a romantic way. Throughout the entire poem one perceives, while reading, the deep longing of the lyric “I” and the sorrow he feels on the death of the love of his life. Furthermore, melancholy is the central theme of the poem.
Topic: The Presentation of Love in Edgar Allen Poe´s Poem “Annabel Lee.”
The following essay will examine the presentation of love in Edgar Allan Poe´s poem “Annabel Lee”. In that poem the lyric “I” presents love between two young people in a romantic way. Throughout the entire poem one perceives, while reading, the deep longing of the lyric “I” and the sorrow he feels on the death of the love of his life. Furthermore, melancholy is the central theme of the poem.
The romantic presentation is expressed in the fact that love is strong, knows no bounds and even endures beyond death. In addition, true love is unique and involves a feeling of high esteem for the beloved. The poem “Annabel Lee” is exemplary for this definition of love.
There are many passages which emphasize the intense love between the lyric “I” and the “lyric thou”, Annabel Lee.
Among other things, this is expressed in the first stanza of the poem by the epanalepsis in the first line and the parallelism in the second. Their love began growing “many and many a year ago”, when “I was a child and she was a child” and over the years it became stronger and stronger. This quotation shows that their affection for each other is not only a brief emotional outburst, as it is often the case, but a fondness that begins growing a long time before and intensifies with time. It is a feeling that can be weakened and destroyed by nothing and nobody.
Another evidence for their strong love is supplied by the polyptoton in the sixth line of the first stanza. The only reason for Annabel Lee`s being is “to love and be loved” by one single person, the “lyric persona”. Her only task in life is to feel and return such strong love and her thoughts circle solely around that special person.
Moreover, the climax and the parallelism in the fifth stanza also provide an argument for their intense love.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
The comparative in “older” and “wiser” emphasises the special kind of love between this couple. Despite the fact that they are only children and one would normally not expect such intense feelings in childhood, and although they do not have so much experience of life as many other people, their love is unsurpassed. Their love is the one and true love.
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- Citation du texte
- Kerstin Köck (Auteur), 2007, The Presentation of Love in Edgar Allen Poe´s Poem "Annabel Lee", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/305764