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Annabel Lee is a poem by the American author Edgar Allan Poe. It was published in 1849 and was Edgar Allan's last literary work before his death.
Description
Annabel Lee describes the story of two people who fell in love in their youth, told in a way that the narrator is the lover of Annabel Lee. Though they were young, they shared a love so strong that the angels apparently grew envious, and her "highborn kinsmen" took her away before she was eventually killed by what her lover believes to be the angels. She is buried in a tomb by the sea, and the narrator, believing their souls entwined, refuses to let death keep them apart, and spends his nights lying by her tomb, dreaming of Annabel and seeing her in the stars.
Inspiration
The story is in fact about the Shadowhunter Annabel Blackthorn and her warlock lover Malcolm Fade. Though the poem was told by the supposed lover, the lover from whom this story was based—Malcolm Fade—was in fact not aware of her death until much later.
Annabel and Malcolm fell in love when they were young.
- 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...
When Annabel's Shadowhunter family found out about their relationship, they strongly disapproved. Shadowhunters, who had the blood of angels, felt it inappropriate that their kind be affiliated with Downworlders, especially because of the period.
- But we loved with a love that was more than love—
- I and my Annabel Lee—
- With a love that the wingéd seraphs of Heaven,
- Coveted her and me.
They hid her away, leaving her to die in a tomb by the Cornwall sea.
- So that her high-born 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 the wind came out of the cloud, chilling
- And killing my Annabel Lee.
History
Edgar Allan Poe heard of the tragic story from Downworlders and was inspired to write this poem shortly before his death. Malcolm only realized years later that the poem had been based on them. He had since become obsessed with with finding ways to bring his lover back from the dead.
When Malcolm used a convergence site as his base in Los Angeles, he inscribed lines of the poem in another language on the walls of the cave. He also marked the bodies of his Followers' victims in the string of murders with the poem as a message to the Nephilim. In August 2012, this was discovered and translated by the Blackthorns, and it had been through Arthur that they began to understand the significance of the poem to their investigation, and through Tavvy that they deduced that the poem was about Annabel Blackthorn.[1]
Trivia
- The chapter titles of Lady Midnight are named after lines from the poem.
- The poem is part of the basis for The Dark Artifices.[2] It was also heavily featured in Lady Midnight.