Voices of Earlier English: Edgar Allan Poe on Annabel Lee

Mid-19th century cultivated older southern coastal accent. Non-rhotic.


Annabel Lee (written in 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 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 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—
⁠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.

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