"Annebel Lee" is a tragic poem of love and death. It was written in 1849 and was published two days after Poe's death on October 7th. This poem has since become one of Poe's most popular works. In the poem, Poe speaks of love and death. He also tells of a woman that he is so in love with that he would kill to keep her. This poem is Poe's confession to killing the love of his life and then killing himself along with her.

Poe talks about this poem as if it were in the past: "It was many and many a year ago." Annabel Lee and Poe lived in a "kingdom by the sea". Annabel Lee did not truly love Poe as much as he thought she did. In fact, she thought of him as selfish and immature. She could have possibly wanted to be with another man and Poe would not let her. For this she could have started to hate him and he would not be able to understand why. Poe was controlling and wanted her to live "with no other thought than to love and be loved by me".

He never wanted to believe that she did not love him as much as he loved her. He tried to block that thought and put it towards the back of his mind. He desired that everything be perfect and strong between them: "But our love it was stronger by far than the love of those who were older than we--of many far wiser than we--". However, they did not have the good relationship that Poe's heart so desperately wanted. They were simply a children: "She was a child and I was a child. . .". Not necessarily children of age, but children of heart. They did not know how to help each other and instead they only hurt one another. They both did love each other at one point; however, all they did was hurt each other, and one cannot base a relationship on past love.

The desires of Poe's heart is to have Annabel as his wife in the future. We know that she is not his wife because he calls her a maiden: " And this maiden she lived. . .". Throughout the time he had her captive he tried his hardest to please her and do everything that he could to make he happy. In a sense, his captivity was more of an emotional one rather than a physical one. She, of course, did not want to hurt him so she never left him. This in turn led Poe to think that she was in love with him when she really was not. She had been at one time when her heart was too immature and young to understand. Now, her heart has grown and she has no love left for him. He still thought that everything was okay: "our love it was stronger by far."

Poe wanted everyone to see and think that they had a good relationship. He made an outside illusion for everyone to see. He was ashamed for anyone to know that his dear maiden had fallen out of love for him. He wanted other people in his town to covet the relationship they thought he had with her: "With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven coveted her and me". His desires were that all of heaven would be jealous of their fake relationship: "The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, Went envying her and me". Poe wanted to rebuild their relationship and make it better, but he could not. He wanted her to be with him forever, but all she wanted was to escape his emotional hold.

Poe soon saw that she would never give him the kind of love he wanted from her. He wanted to keep her with him forever so that no other person could have her. He contemplated things that he would do about this for a long time. At first he was not sure at all. He never wanted or intended to hurt Annabel but he wanted to keep her. He was angry at her for not wanting to be his: "Yes! that was the reason. . . ". After a long night of thinking, Poe finally decided what he was going to do. He murdered her and buried her a tomb right by his home.

His jealousy and desires took her away from him and the world forever: "So that her highborn kinsman came and bore her away from me, to shut her up in a sepulcher in this kingdom by the sea". In this quote, the kinsman is Poe. Though he is not related to her, he still considers her to be his and a part of his own being. To him she is a part of him that will never go away. She is the only one that he will ever want in the world. She is the blood that runs through his veins.

Through all of his anger and grief he still loved her and began to regret what he had done to her. Day by day he was haunted by grief, regret, loneliness, and guilt: "For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams of the beautiful Annabel Lee." He is still in so much pain and sorrow that he goes to her grave to beg her forgiveness many years later. He had tried to move on. By trying to forget her and his past sins he only thought about them more to the point of insanity. He realizes now that maybe God and his angels had cursed them both from their jealousy of what they had in the beginning. He believes that God must have done something to Annabel to make her fall out of love for him. Now, alone at her grave he feels completely dead inside without her. He realizes that the ultimate defeat over everything would be to take his own life so that he could be with her again. He has only been half of himself with her gone. Poe had always struggled with his emotions every time he thought of her. So in order to find her and himself again he goes to he grave, begs her forgiveness and it is there that he takes his own life: "And so, all the night-tide, I lay down by the side of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride".

Poe knew that he could never move on and forget about her. According to him their love was everlasting and nothing could ever take that away from them. Nothing could take it away; not even God himself. They were linked together by their souls: "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". After this he calls her his brideeven though they were never really married: "my life and my bride. . .". His last thoughts were only to be with her and how he hoped to find her again. He was always dead inside without her so he hoped to find the answers through his own death.

Poe died to be with the woman he loved. By killing himself and Annabel he killed two souls. He bought all of his turmoil on himself. His insanity drove him to the point of taking two lives into his own hands and crushing them. He was the one who caused all the pain, suffering, and death between them both when he first laid eyes on her. If it had not been for his selfishness they both might have lived longer. They both died because of his emotions and childish heart of love. They might have been okay if he would have just learned to let go and accept things as they are. However, according to destiny and their lives they were doomed. He damned them both the moment he fell in love with her.