Edgar Allan Poe

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 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 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 one 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—
        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 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 sepulchre there by the sea,
        In her tomb by the sounding sea.