How Poe Explores Madness in Annabel Lee

Annabel Lee

Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe was a master of the Gothic genre and often used themes of love and death in his works to probe the psyche and the line between sanity and madness. One of his most notable poems, “Annabel Lee,” offers a disturbing examination of these themes. The poem uses repetition of sound and words, alliteration and assonance, throughout—along with vivid imagery and startling contrasts to depict joyful youth driven into maddening despair. This paper explores the structure, plot, and significant poetic elements of "Annabel Lee" to uncover how Poe reveals that it is a thin line between happiness and love, and death and madness.

Structure of the Poem

“Annabel Lee” is a lyrical ballad comprising six stanzas with varied lengths. The rhyme scheme alternates between lines in a pattern of ABABCB in most stanzas (Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, 2013). For instance, in the first stanza, “Lee” (B) rhymes with “sea” (B) and “me” (B), whereas “ago” (A) rhymes with “know” (A).

As for the poem’s meter, it is predominantly composed in anapestic and iambic meter, with some variations. This gives the poem a rhythmic, musical quality. Punctuation is used strategically to convey emotion. Notably, Poe uses dashes to express heightened emotion or urgency—something that another great poet, Emily Dickinson, also did (Wardrop, 1998).

Plot Summary of the Poem

The poem is narrated by a man who tells a story of his lost love, Annabel Lee. Their love was so powerful that it evoked jealousy in the angels, who caused her death (Poe, 1849). Despite Annabel Lee’s death, the narrator declares his unending love for her, stating that their souls will never be separated. He is so insistent on this matter that he sleeps in the very sepulcher where she is buried. His actions suggest a person deeply and mentally disturbed by the death of his love. He even claims to see her in the moonlight and dreams, asserting, "And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side / Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride" (Poe, 1849). The rhyme and repetitious nature of the poem lends it the voice of a near-raving lunatic, who repeats himself over and over again, obsessing over the lyricism of his own ruined romance.

Analysis of Poetic Elements

Poe employs symbolism throughout the poem. The scene is set “in a kingdom by the sea” and the reader is reminded of this in every stanza. The sea symbolizes vastness and, at times, the boundary between life and death—but also an overwhelming force that pushes and pulls, causing one to experience highs and lows, over and over again. One feels like one is being beaten by wave after wave of grief and maddening despair as he reads the poem. Additionally, the tomb in which Annabel Lee lies is a constant reminder and symbol of death (Peeples, 2004).

Poe’s frequent repetition of the name “Annabel Lee” and the words “love” and “sea” underscores the intensity of the narrator's feelings. This repetition also helps to establish a melancholic tone (Roppolo, 1954). It hypnotizes the reader in a way, and draws him into the melancholic madness of the narrator.

Poe also creates striking imagery to evoke the sorrow associated with death and the eternal nature of love. His depiction of the chilling sepulcher by the sea or the bright eyes of Annabel Lee paints vivid pictures in the reader's mind, eliciting powerful emotional responses (Silverman, 1992). Indeed, it is enough to compel the reader to go made—as though that was Poe’s intent.