Comparing Annabel Lee And Virginia Clemm

The Death of Annabel Lee and Virginia Clemm Poetry is a fine art; it can be interpreted in many different ways, it is a complex piece of literature that can carry much more meaning than just the words on the surface. Edgar Allan Poe, author of the piece “Annabel Lee”, writes about a young couple who are in love with each other. The speaker of the poem shares a passionate love towards his dear Annabel Lee, but once his lover was taken away from him due to sickness; his overabundance of love towards her was the cause of his own death. If you look at Poe’s life prior to writing “Annabel Lee”, there is a clear parallel between the speaker of the poem and Poe himself, implying that Poe was writing about his relationship with, and the
There are a few specific lines in the poem that shows a few more parallels between Poe and Virginia’s life and the life of the speaker and Annabel Lee. Poe married his cousin Virginia Clemm at the age twenty-seven while she was thirteen. Even though her age was a little on the young side, where tradition aimed for the woman to be closer to age fifteen, Poe and Virginia experienced true love. However the speaker and Annabel Lee were also very young, “I was a child and she was a child” (Poe 7). Poe’s use of italics gives away the emphasis that he was talking about Virginia and himself. Virginia’s loyalty to Poe is another parallel to the poem. As Velella stated: “and she faithfully followed him from Baltimore to Virginia to New York to Philadelphia back to New York as he sought work” (Velella). The speaker also states: “And this maiden she lived with no other thought than to love and be loved by me” (Poe 5-6). That line alone describes Annabel’s loyalty not only to the speaker but Virginia’s loyalty to Poe. Regardless if Poe didn’t make a lot of money off his writing career Virginia didn’t care she still continued to follow him because she loved him. Her love from him was more than enough of a reason to stay by his side. Poe loved his wife and she loved him and the speaker in Annabel Lee mentions that “we loved with a love that was more than love” (Poe 9). Virginia was Poe’s life, much like Annabel Lee was the
The speaker joins his love in the sepulcher that his wife had lied dead in, symbolizing the death of Poe two months later after publishing this poem joined his darling Virginia in death; making “Annabel Lee” his last piece of work.
To conclude, poetry is more than just a fine art, it can be a way of expressing not only your thoughts but also your love towards another human being even in death. Poe managed to express the love he felt for Virginia through parallels in fictional characters that he posed as himself and his wife, the speaker and Annabel Lee. Regardless if all odds and the world were stacked up against them Virginia and Poe even in death managed to keep their love strong and