Skip to main content

In the poem "Annabel Lee," according to the narrator, why was his love taken away from him?

The narrator's lover in the famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe, "Annabel Lee," is the title character. Over the course of the poem, the narrator relates that Annabel Lee was chilled in line 14, which eventually killed her. He says, "the wind came out of a cloud by night, / chilling and killing my Annabel Lee" (25-26). As a result, her cold body was then taken away to be placed in a tomb by her family in lines 27-30.


The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines "chill" as "a cold feeling" and also as "an illness that makes you feel cold." In this context, the word "chill" is probably meant to be taken in both ways. The wind made Annabel Lee cold, which made her weak enough to catch an illness that killed her and thereby left her a corpse without the warmth of life. Alternatively, the cold wind might simply have made her so cold she died.


The narrator explicitly blames this unexpected death upon the angels in lines 11-12 and 21-23. (The word "seraph" in line 11 refers to a type of angel.) The narrator says that the angels are covetous because they are less happy in Heaven than he and Annabel Lee are together. In Christianity, angels are said to dwell in Heaven, which Merriam-Webster also defines as "a place or condition of utmost happiness." Yet, in lines 21-22, the narrator writes that they are "not half so happy in Heaven." By stating that the angels are jealous of his love with Annabel Lee, the narrator is implicitly saying that his love was greater than the greatest happiness. According to the narrator, then, Annabel Lee was killed and separated from him by angels jealous of their impossibly happy love.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more