Sound in Poetry - Poe's "Annabel Lee"

[MrBranchAPLit]

A classic for you this week. We had an all too brief introduction to tone and sound in poetry. We will work more with both of these throughout the year. However, for some practice, let's look at Edgar Allan Poe's classic poem "Annabel Lee".

Read the poem, and then read the poem again aloud listening for the elements of sound in poetry (exact rhyme, near rhyme, consonance, assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, euphony and cacophony).

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.

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 winged 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 kinsman 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.

Remember to always, always read a poem more than once. Three or four times is optimal.

Now that you've read it, I want you to first identify the tone of the poem. Remember that the tone is the speaker of the poem's attitude towards the subject of the poem. There are numerous possibilities. Here are some sample tone words:

Sad
Somber
Afraid
Happy
Joyful
Peaceful
Dreamy
Sweet
Nostalgic
Boring
Hollow
Childish
Confused

Secondly, identify one element of sound that you found in the poem. This could be a line or lines containing assonance or consonance, examples of rhyme, etc.

Finally, does the element of sound in any way help to create the tone you identified? If yes, how? If no, why not?

Enjoy.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 14, 2007 08:52 AM: Message edited by: Mr Branch ]</font>

[dainkelly]

I would like to start off by tellin alberto that he is very irresponsable for having posted after me... he is also probably reading my post to plagiarise my ideas...

The poem to me had a sad tone, it made me sad anyways that the narrator loved annabel lee so much that he seemed not to mind that she died, he loved her so much he didnt need her fisical presence and that makes me sad.

Almost the entire poem is composed of rhymes, i think poe used this to show how the narrator did not need her annabel lee's fisical presence to love her.

[lucas89a]

As expected, Poe's voice is somber, sad and twisted. This man loved this girl so much that when she died he blamed it on the angels. The thing with Poe is that you never know wether he's playing with reality or not. The "angels that took his love away because they were jelous" is not an allusion to anything..it just means that this guy is crazy. He lost his mind after the love of his life died from some other cause. All of this add to the somber/twisted tone.
Poe uses a lot of rhyme which is just to add to the somber beat and pace of the poem. The rhyme makes the reader read the poem in a particular way.

[montanaro.g]

Now that you've read it, I want you to first identify the tone of the poem. Remember that the tone is the speaker of the poem's attitude towards the subject of the poem. There are numerous possibilities. Here are some sample tone words:

Sad
Somber
Afraid
Happy
Joyful
Peaceful
Dreamy
Sweet
Nostalgic
Boring
Hollow
Childish
Confused

Secondly, identify one element of sound that you found in the poem. This could be a line or lines containing assonance or consonance, examples of rhyme, etc.

Finally, does the element of sound in any way help to create the tone you identified? If yes, how? If no, why not?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The tone of the poem is one of lament and sadness. Poe is mourning the death of a lover. The poem begins by explaining the couple's love, which originates from childhood. He believes that Annabel Lee dies because "the angels" envied the couple's great love. Contrasting a little bit with the "Raven," where Poe believes that he will "nevermore" be united with his love one, in Annabel Lee, he believes that he will be reunited again. The poem describes the sadness that Poe is experiencing after the death of his loved one, because he is rememorating the past, which most of the time brings painful memories.
The element of sound does help to create a certain tone that is bounded with what Poe is trying to convey. The sad tone that Poe created helps the reader experience what Poe might have felt while writing the poem.

[rcln]

The poem has a sad and nostalgic tone. The narrator is lamenting the death of his beloved Annabel Lee. He is unable to accept the tragedy that has fell upon them and thus believes it has been the envious angles that have separated Annabel Lee from him. In the last verse, Poe deepens the sadness and nostalgia by describing how the narrator can?t stop thinking about his beloved and spends night after night sleeping by her tomb.

One element of sound that I found in the poem is assonance. One example is the first line of the poem: ?It was many and many a year ago,? where the repeating vowel is A. Such low and deep sound helps to create the depressed and gloomy atmosphere.

[mariaceleste]

Although the anecdote is sad, I think that it expresses triumph. The speaker finds comfort in that no one ?can ever dissever my soul from the soul/ of my beautiful Annabel Lee?. And knowing this provides the speaker with serenity. The tone is tranquil and serene. There is rhyme within the poem. ?For the moon never beams, without brining me dreams/ Of my beautiful Annabel Lee?? The rhyme is euphonious and it thus creates that tone of serenity.

[MrBranchAPLit]

Okay, let me interject one second. We need to be very careful when talking about how elements within a text affect tone. We want to avoid generalized statements like the rhyme helps to create a _______ tone.

What Bruce and Maria Celeste have done is good:

Bruce identifies the assonance of the "a" sound in the first line, one he identifies as a "low" and "deep" sound, that can help to create a tone of gloom. Although there seem to be three different "a" sounds in the first line, he is on the right track with the specific language.

Maria also is specific, claiming that the euphony from the rhyme creates a tone of "serenity".

In both cases, they try to make a specific link between an element of sound and the overall tone. It makes sense that a certain "a" sound, one that is low, connects to gloom. Is it a stretch, perhaps, but very much what we want to try to do. I feel that a feeling of serenity would in fact have more euphonic sounds than cacauphonic ones. So, Maria-Celeste's assertion feels right.

The others are too vague:

"The element of sound" - what element? ..."helps to create a certain tone" - what tone? how does it help?

How does Poe's use of rhyme suggest that the speaker "did not need Lee's physical presence to love her"?

How, exactly, does the rhyme add to a "somber beat and pace of the poem"? In what way does a reader read the poem?

To improve upon these you would want to add a "because..." and make that specific link. Use these posts for practice and we will do well.

We will continue to work on this, including this Tuesday with some more poetry.

Mr. Branch

[cjkb90]

The tone of the poem is not only nostalgic, but proud as well. The narrator recalls moments in the past that can not be relived, which gives it a nostalgic tone. However, it is also proud, since he says that his love with Annabel Lee was so strong it was envied by the seraphs, the highest level of angels, and it could not be broken by the physical absence of her.

Poe masters the use of assonance in the poem. For example, in the last four verses:

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.

This assonance helps deliver the nostalgic message by focusing the readers attention on key words, such as the night tide, life and bride, whose vowels rhyme. These words are key because they refer to the two most important items in the poem: the sea and the narrator's love for Annabel Lee

[alberto_dacosta]

The tone of the poem is certainly nostalgic, since it is sung in the memory of the narrator's love, Annabel Lee, whose death separated them. However, the verse "[No one] can ever dissever my soul from the soul [of Annabel Lee]" adds, I think, another dimension to the tone: not one of sadness or regret, but rather one of joy, of closure. She is dead, yes, but she is, in many ways, still with him; she occupies the tombstone by the sea, and a small portion of his mind is always hers to claim.

Most of the verses appear to follow a ABCBDB pattern, where every even verse rhymes but the odds don't, necessarily. This adds a certain musicality to the poem, again returning to the notion that he is not necessarily painfully remembering her, but rather reminiscing fondly about his love for her. Since the poem rhymes, it can be "sung" without sounding broken or out of pace.

Again, although this falls out of the realm of rhythm or assonance, the choice of Poe's location is quite peculiar. The sea can be raging or silent, murderous or peaceful. This duality of emotions, of grief and peace, of depression and mere nostalgia, is one that I think is alluded to by the poem as a whole, particularly when Poe lashes out violently at the "angels...envying her and me" only to, later, resort to a more reserved and victorious tone.

In both cases, they try to make a specific link between an element of sound and the overall tone. It makes sense that a certain "a" sound, one that is low, connects to gloom. Is it a stretch, perhaps, but very much what we want to try to do. I feel that a feeling of serenity would in fact have more euphonic sounds than cacauphonic ones. So, Maria-Celeste's assertion feels right.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Personally, I would connect "o" and "u" sounds much more to gloom or disappointment than I would "a", "e", or "i" sounds. Both "o" and "u" demand the use of a deeper voice tone, whereas "a", "e", and "i" are lighter sounds and are much more reminiscent of "gleeful" instruments such as flutes or harps.

[idaeaton]

The tone of poem, in my opinion, is not only one of sadness, but one of pride. Pride in a sense that there love was envied by the angels; a love that was too powerful that it proved to be a liability for the rest. Although there is pride in that sense, there is also sadness due to the lost of Annabel Lee, Poe's lover. Poe, throughout the poem is reviving those lost memories about their love, childhood.

The use of assonance makes the reader convey a sense of nostalgia and sadness. Not only does it make emphasis on the last words of each verse, but it makes the poem have a certain vibe that only the reader can experience. It seems as if Poe wants the reader to feel the same he was feeling when he wrote the poem.