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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.

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.
Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policyReport a text or rights issue

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