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There is no love so full of passion, so ripe with emotion, so acute and at the same time enchanted with sensual awareness, as that of love lost. I think no poem is more completely representative of such ambiance of affection felt, than that of Edgar Allen Poe's "Annabel Lee." It has remained a favorite of mine since I first heard it in my formative years.

Poe, through Annabel Lee, expresses a sense of love perhaps found only in folk lore and fairy tales, but still it is a love, like that kindled and nurtured between mother and child, a love of absolute trust and sacrifice, a profound love, a devout love, a love that invokes within us the most spiritual of our senses; and a love which transcends even death. It is the kind of love that so many search for and long to embrace, and it is a love who's warm caress is so rare and special that few will ever quite find it. If you are one so lucky to have shared such a love, then you will know without hesitation exactly what I have tried so desperately to express here, but if my own words are to inadequate for the task, then I beg you, consider Poe's, and see if you can find in his quaint and powerful lyric, the image of true love.

ANNABEL LEE

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 live with no other thought
Than to love and to 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 highborn kinsmen 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 a 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 see-
In her tomb by the side of the sea.

There are probably volumes of verse I could have chosen to feature in this article. I chose Annabel Lee, because it is a poem that leaves me with a sense of solace, and at the same time a comforting kind of solitude, and the awareness that the love we find within ourselves is the greatest love of all; and to share this love convokes within us, the ultimate perception of fulfillment.

I think that "best" is a subjective notion, certainly when it comes to love and particularly when it comes to poems about love. There are many poems which would qualify for consideration under this title, but the best ones are those which on a very personal level touch us, and convey some meaning we can attach to our own experiences and feelings. For me, Annabel Lee is a poem which meets this criterion.

Learn more about this author, John Traveler.
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