An Analysis of Figurative Language in Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

Annabel Lee (1849)

by Edgar Allan Poe

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.

I was a child and she 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, chilling

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsman came

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulcher

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 the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we

And neither 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 feel 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 the sepulcher there by the sea,

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Analysis

1. Alliteration

    Alliteration is a repeated consonant sound that occur at the beginning of word or within a word. Alliteration doesn't need to be entire sentence to be effective. A two-word phrase can work too. The following pieces of the poetry below are the example of Alliteration.

 "The angels, not half so happy in heaven,

went envying her and me--"

The example of line above, shows that the poet uses alliteration in his poem. There is a repeated word of the consonant "h" that is contained in words "half", "happy", "heaven", and "her". 

   "Of those who were older than we-

And neither far wiser than we"

The second example of alliteration can be found in the above line. There is a repeated word of consonant that is contained in the words "we", "were" and "wiser", all consonant begin with the same first letter "w".

      2.  Assonance

    Assonance is a repetition of similar vowel sounds at the beginning, middle, or end of words in poetry. These two snipped of poem below is the example of the using of Assonance in Annabel Lee.

"And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes" 

and

"And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side"

    In the snipped of the two lines of poem above, there is a diphthong repetition  (a combination of two adjacent vowel sound) /ai/. The words "rise", "I", "bright", "eyes", "night-tide", and "lie" has all the same diphthong vowel which is /ai/.

      3. Personification

    Personification is a figure of speech in which an idea or thing is given human attributes and/or feeling or is spoken of as if it were human. 

 "That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee."

In the snipped of the poem above, the speaker suggests that Annabel Lee was killed by the cloud because the love that the speaker and Annabel Lee have, made the angels of heaven jealous and desirous. So, they sent a wind to kill Annabel Lee. In this line, the poet gives human qualities to the wind by saying that the wind is killing Annabel Lee. In reality, the object "wind" doesn't have that kind of quality. Because the wind just did what the wind does. But giving it (human quality = killing) like it did it on purpose, that is called personification.

       4. Hyperbole

    Hyperbole is the use of over-exaggeration ti create emphasis or humor. it's not intended to be taken literally but, it supposed to drive a point home and make the reader understand just how much the writer felt in that moment.

 "And this maiden she lived with no other thought

than to love and be loved by me."

The example line above can be categorized as hyperbole. The speaker said that Annabel Lee living her life just to think about to love and be loved by the speaker as if every day, she only think about the speaker. That's a very poetic thing to say but the truth is, everybody, no matter how much in love they are would have other thoughts from time to time.