sample_poetry

Nicholas Sanders

Ms. Diaz

English 10

13 February 2004

                                                  �We Loved With a Love That Was More Than Love:�

                                                                       Poe�s Lost Loves

          Edgar Allan Poe is considered one of the most renowned authors. He is remembered primarily for his

dark poetry and macabre tales. Some of the main themes Poe explores are death, the supernatural and

obsessive love. His life was filled with much sorrow because of losing his loved ones, many of whom had died

by the time he was 20. Poe�s intense relationships with and the loss of beloved women, had a tremendous

influence on his poems �Annabel Lee� and �The Raven,� both of which explore the themes of obsessive love,

death, and mourning.

        �Annabel Lee� features a narrator suffering the loss of his �child� bride, his beloved Annabel Lee. At first

glance this poem may seem sweet and lovely, but reading deeper soon uncovers a rather chilling poem. The

narrator talks of how, when they were children, he and his love Annabel Lee lived by the sea: �It was many

and many a year ago,/ In the kingdom by the sea,/ That a maiden there lived whom you may know/ By the

name of ANNABEL LEE;� (lines 1-4). The narrator then talks of how they were young and �loved with a love

that was more than love�� (9). Later in the poem, the speaker claims that supernatural beings became jealous

of their love when he avows, �The angles, not half so happy in Heaven/ Went envying her and me:� (21-22).

Here, the speaker reveals his extreme paranoia and insanity; indeed, he is so convinced that the angels are

jealous of their love that when Annabel Lee dies of sickness, he believes that the angles deliberately killed her.

In the end, her distraught lover, the narrator admits to sleeping on top of her grave: �And so, all the night-tide, I

lie down by the side,/ Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,/ In her sepulcher there by the sea�/In

her tomb by the side of the sea� (41-44). Clearly, his behavior indicates that what the speaker feels for Annabel

Lee is more of an obsession than it is a genuine love.

          Similarly, �The Raven� explores a narrator�s obsession with his lost love, Lenore. It is clear that the

speaker thinks highly of his love Lenore, referring to her as the �rare and radiant maiden whom the angles

name Lenore� (11). In the beginning of the poem, the narrator states, �Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I

had sought to borrow / From my books surcease of sorrow -- sorrow for the lost Lenore --� (9-10). He is

grief stricken and tries to get his mind off of his by reading. Soon enough, her hears a �rapping,� �tapping� on

the door, and he is visited by a raven. At first, the bird serves as a welcome distraction for the grieving

narrator. However, the raven only speaks one word throughout the poem, which is �nevermore.� Obviously a

raven cannot talk, so it seems that the bird is all in the mind of the narrator, forcing him realize that Lenore is

nevermore. At the end of the poem the raven, the constant reminder of the narrator�s loss, drives him insane:

          And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

          On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

          And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming.

          And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

          And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

               Shall be lifted---nevermore! (103-108)

The grief is his demise. He will be trapped, imprisoned by his grief and insanity for all eternity.

         The loss of a loved one is something that Poe was familiar with, as indicated by his poems. His narrators

are bogged down with grief, reflecting an accurate depiction of men who, it appears, have loved and lost; yet,

there is a thin line between love and obsession. The men Poe writes about suffer greatly, more so than typical

grievers because in actuality they are pathologically obsessed with their �loved ones.� Healthy relationships do

not include hallucinations nor do they result in the desire to hold on to a loved one by sleeping on her grav

after her death. �The Raven� and �Annabel Lee� are usually referred to as �love poems,� but these poems are

not really about love. The narrators love with a love that is more than love; in their case, �love� is code for

�obsession.�