Text Pages 157–159
Annabel Lee
BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
Before Reading
During Reading
Summary
Use the Study Guide on the next page as a way
to work through the selection and improve your
comprehension.
In “Annabel Lee” (1849), Poe explores one of his
favorite poetic themes: the death of a beautiful young
girl. The narrator of the poem is Annabel Lee’s husband.
He is grieving because his beautiful young bride is lost
to him forever.
After Reading
Answer the questions below as a way to deepen
your interpretation of the selection.
Vocabulary
1. Who is Annabel Lee? What happened to her?
seraphs—angels.
covet—want to have very badly; be jealous of.
highborn kinsmen—upper-class relatives.
sepulcher—burial place; tomb.
demons—evil spirits.
dissever—separate.
sounding—making a full, deep sound (as from
the waves).
maiden—an unmarried girl or woman.
tide—the periodic variation in the surface level of the
oceans and of bays, gulfs, inlets, and estuaries, caused
by gravitational attraction of the moon and sun.
winged—having wings or winglike appendages.
2. Why did Annabel Lee die, according to the
speaker?
3. Does the poem suggest that Annabel Lee and
her husband had experienced other obstacles to
their love? Support your answer with lines from
the poem.
4. Why do you think that Poe sets this poem in a
“kingdom by the sea”?
(Tested vocabulary used in the online vocabulary
quiz is underlined.)
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Annabel Lee
37
Building Comprehension
Name
Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe
Use the Building Comprehension exercise below as a way to improve your
comprehension of the selection.
Character Study—The Speaker in Annabel Lee
1. What do you learn about speaker from this poem?
2. How does he feel about Annabel Lee?
3. How does he feel about her kinsmen and others who object to their love?
4. How do you think that they feel about him?
5. How do you feel about the speaker and this poem?
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Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe TRM
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