[1170] Annabel Lee

Back to the movies theme, here's a guest poem sent in by Mallika Chellappa
<mchellappa@>

It was many and many a year ago,
    In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
    By the name of ANNABEL LEE;--
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
    Than to love and be loved by me.
She was a child and I was a child,
    In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
    I and my Annabel Lee--
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
    Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
    In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud by night
    Chilling my Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsman came
    And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
    In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
    Went envying her and me:--
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
    In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of a cloud, chilling
    And killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
    Of those who were older than we--
    Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in Heaven above,
    Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
    Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:--

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;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
    In her sepulchre there by the sea--
    In her tomb by the side of the sea.

 	-- Edgar Allan Poe

This poem has to its credit (to my knowledge) two cinematic references.

One was a short chocolate box feature with a young couple picnicking on the
sea shore, with the poem recited in the background. I didn't pay any
attention to the credits.

The other was "Play Misty for me" the 1971 precursor to "Fatal Attraction",
with Clint Eastwood, Donna Mills, and Jessica Walter, who, as Evelyn, takes
on the name of Annabel in the movie. This was Eastwood's directorial debut.

Actully, this poem is very much in Poe's obsession vein - a la "The Raven"
and all his horror stories. I can't say it's really one of my favourites,
unlike the Raven, which is. However, the cinematography of the short feature
film was superb.

Mallika

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[this poem is archived, accessible and awaiting your comments at]
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1170.html
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From: "amulya gopalakrishnan" <amulya_g@>

this poem also inspired nabokov's nymphet- humbert's childhood love,
annabel leigh.

From: "Daniel A Thompson Jr" <daniel.a.thompson.jr@>

"In her tomb by the sounding sea."

As the theme of today's poem [May 1, 2005] was "poems that you memorized in 
school," I immediately thought of this work, and found it in the archives. 
One of the finest poems Poe ever wrote, but so like much of his work, so 
incredibly sad.

Take care,

Dan Thompson

My sources are unreliable, but their information is fascinating.