Edgar Allan Poe - Annabel Lee | Dramatic poem reading audio

My recitation of one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous poems, "Annabel Lee". It was written in 1849 and was Poe's second to last poem. It is centered around a tragic love story set in a "kingdom by the sea" and, like most of Poe's best poetry, it deals with the untimely death of a beautiful woman who is mourned by the speaker of the poem.

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"Annabel Lee" 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.

She was a child and I 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 wingéd 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 by night
⁠Chilling my Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born 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, 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 see 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 side of the sea.