Ballad · Love
Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe · 1849
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 wingèd 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 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 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 her sepulchre there by the sea—
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe — quilloak.com/poems/annabel-lee
Quick facts
- Poem
- Annabel Lee
- Poet
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Published
- 1849
- Length
- 41 lines
- Form
- Ballad, Narrative Poem, Rhyming Poems
- Themes
- Love, Sad, Death & Loss
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 41 lines · 6 stanzas of 6–8 lines
- Refrains
- “In this kingdom by the sea,”“In this kingdom by the sea.”“Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on a United States term-expiry review; status can differ elsewhere.
- Author record
- Edgar Allan Poe1809–1849
- Source record
- QuillOak curated editionAnnabel Lee (1849) by edgar-allan-poe
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1849
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 14e4450f253bf59b…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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