“Lenore” is one of Poe’s many poems about women.  It speaks of a deceased woman, and the world “loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride.”  At her death, the audience of the poem, society, rejoiced.  Poe, however, lamented at her death.  He commented on her beauty and youth.  He referred to her youth repeatedly, reminding the readers of his “child bride,” Virginia, who also died young.  Poe said in the end of the poem that Lenore’s soul flew up to heaven, to “a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven,” from the “damned Earth.”  He said that he would never be sad, only rejoice for you.

"Lenore"

Ah, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!
    Let the bell toll!- a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;
    And, Guy de Vere, hast thou no tear?- weep now or nevermore!
    See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!
    Come! let the burial rite be read- the funeral song be sung!-
    An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young-
    A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.


    "Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride,
    And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her- that she died!
    How shall the ritual, then, be read?- the requiem how be sung
    By you- by yours, the evil eye,- by yours, the slanderous tongue
    That did to death the innocence that died, and died so young?"


    Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song
    Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel no wrong.
    The sweet Lenore hath "gone before," with Hope, that flew beside,
    Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy
    bride.
    For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies,
    The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes
    The life still there, upon her hair- the death upon her eyes.


    "Avaunt! avaunt! from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven-
    From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven-
    From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of
    Heaven!
    Let no bell toll, then,- lest her soul, amid its hallowed mirth,
    Should catch the note as it doth float up from the damned Earth!
    And I!- to-night my heart is light!- no dirge will I upraise,
    But waft the angel on her flight with a Paean of old days!"

          Poe exemplifies feelings of seclusion from his peers in his poem, “Alone.”  He says that from his “childhood’s hour,” he has been unique, and for that he could not be accepted.  He saw things differently than others, and reacted to events in ways that stretch the imagination to even fathom.  This poem uses rhyming; the lines rhymed in sets of two.  The lyrical quality of the lines gives the poem a current, which communicates the tone of the poem: a bitter acceptance of his life.

"Alone"

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were---I have not seen
As others saw---I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I lov'd, I loved alone.
Then---in my childhood---in the dawn

Of a most stormy life---was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that 'round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold---
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass'd me flying by---
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

Poe’s “To Helen” is a love poem, separated from the norm by its classical references and astounding vocabulary.  He uses rhyme and rhythm in this poem, as in nearly all his others; it flows like a love song, and rhymes with a disorderly logic.  Poe focuses, in this poem, on Helen’s beauty.  He speaks of classical Greek beauty, “Naiad airs,” and “the grandeur that was Rome,” in relationship to his Helen.  “To Helen” is a lighthearted poem that expresses Poe’s affection for women.

 "To Helen"

Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.

         
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo, in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand,
Ah! Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land!

“A Dream” is one of Poe’s most powerful pieces.  Its power lies in its simplicity.  The poem tells that Poe’s dream held hope, happiness, and an escape from the heart-break of the day.  Poe’s life was an unhappy one, with tragedy from the start and few moments of joy.  Again, in “A Dream,” Poe uses rhyme.  The first and third lines of each stanza rhyme, as do the second and fourth.  However, the vocabulary in this poem is not as extensive as in many of his other works.  This makes the piece easier to understand, and seem almost conversational.  “A Dream” is different from Poe’s other works, but appeals to all readers with a message given by its simplicity.

"A Dream"

In visions of the dark night

I have dreamed o joy departed

But a waking dream of life and light

Hath left me broken-hearted.

Ah! What is not a dream by day

To him whose eyes are cast

On things around him, with a ray

Turn back upon the past?

That holy dream, that holy dream

While all the world were chiding

Hath cheered me as a lovely beam

A lonely spirit guiding.

What through that light, thro’ storm and night

So trembled from afar—

What could there be more purely bright

In Truth’s day star?

"Once I Met a Man"

Once I met a man
a very nice, kind man.
When I would see him
He told me to trim
the hair off of Brim.

Then one day I find he died.
People told me he was kind with a
man that was blinde.
And that person was me.
Once I met a man that was very kind

Annabel Lee
By Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and may 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 a love-
I and my ANNABEL LEE-
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this is 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 kinsmen 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 out 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 lay 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 sounding sea.

Analysis of "Annabel Lee" by Elizabeth Atkins

In “Annabel Lee,” Edgar Allan Poe speaks of the death of his young bride, and of his misery at losing her.  Poe’s wife and cousin, Virginia Clemms, died at twenty-four, after eleven years of marriage, and he refers to her in the poem as Annabel Lee.  H e tells that she died before she should have; that the angels were jealous of their happiness and took her from him.  Her “highborn kinsmen buried her in a tomb by the sea” and their love survived her death.  Poe claims that every night he dreamed of her, that he saw her eyes in the stars, and that he slept at night by her tomb.  His obsessive love is shown in the lines, “And so, all the night tide, I lay 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 surrounding sea.”

Poe uses rhythm and rhyme to set the mood of the poem.  Though there is no set number of syllables of rhyming order, both are obvious for the reader to find.  The overall poem is soothing and calm, like the waves he speaks of in their “Kingdom by the sea.”  Contrary to the placid tone, the content of the poem is gloomy and almost menacing.  Like the song of the sirens in the Greek myths, the rhythm and rhyme lull the reader into a false sense of security while telling them of sinister topics; the purpose of the siren song.  Poe displays his resentment for the world by blaming his misery on envious angels, and his devotion to his wife by saying that “the moon never beams without bringing me dreams/ of the beautiful Annabel Lee.”

The writer uses repetition and rhyme to drive his point into the reader’s mind.  For example, one line reads “a wind blew out of a cloud, chilling/ my beautiful Annabel Lee,” and the concluding lines of the next stanza say “that the wind came out of the clouds by night/ chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.” T he phrase “Beautiful Annabel Lee” can be found four times and her name appears seven times: once in every stanza and twice in the last.  Poe uses his knowledge of poetry and human psychology to show the reader his falsely calm remorse at the early death of his beloved Virginia Clemms, his “Annabel Lee.”