A Modern Translation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee”
A Modern Translation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee”
By Theresa Bane
A while back I did a line-by-line transliteration of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” (1845). Taking each line of the poem I explained what the author was saying or what he meant while maintaining the pentameter and rhyme scheme. The finished project was well received and frequently commented upon. So, like all authors I thought I would revisit the idea and try it again but this time with a different one of Poe’s poems, the beautiful “Annabel Lee.”
I am a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe, or Eddie Al as I like to call him. He wrote to completion about thirty short stories and published about one hundred and fifty poems in his lifetime. Poe is one of the “classic” authors English Lit teachers force you to read in high school, and for that I am thankful. I enjoyed his work so much I actually went on to read some of his other stuff on my own.
A little-back story wouldn’t hurt, as this poem is perhaps one of his most controversial. “Annabel Lee” is a poem covering Eddie Al’s favorite theme: the death of a beautiful woman. In it the narrator tells of a love that transcends death, a love-if one reads in-between the lines-that is reciprocated by a corpse. The narrator may be a bit unstable; he not only loves Annabel Lee and worships her but also goes so far as to say that she was murdered by none other than the jealous angels of heaven. Yes, I can admit that there are some creepy lines in this poem and yes, the poem does hint at necrophilia, but don’t hold these little oddities against it. Poe used as strong language as he could to drive home the depth of love between the narrator and his lost beloved, so while aiming for Kahlil Gibran (who penned the deeply beloved poem “Love One Another”) he has bouts of Ed Gein (cannibal, grave robber, sexual deviant, and serial killer) running throughout.
Literary snobs like to speculate on who the woman that inspired this poem was and there are lots of opinions on the subject. Truth of the matter is that we will never know because Eddie Al never said or made note of it anywhere in his writings.
There is a bit of local folklore in Charleston, South Carolina that tells of a sailor who fell in love with a local girl but her father disapproved of the match; like all young lovers they met in secret but unlike most young lovers these two chose to rendezvous in a graveyard. While the sailor was out at sea he learned upon his arrival home that his beloved had recently died of yellow fever; the bereaved father refused to allow the sailor to attend the funeral. How it is possible that the sailor could not find where his girlfriend was buried is a bit of mystery to me, but be that as it may, he kept a vigil in the graveyard where they used to meet. Did Eddie Al know of this legend? No one knows, Poe was stationed in Charleston during his short stint in the military, but it’s unlikely that he became familiar with local tale.
A ballad is a poem that tells a story by use of narrative verse; it has a musical sound to it when read aloud. Technically, “Annabel Lee” is not a ballad because it does not use iambic heptameter (seven sets of unstressed, stressed syllables per line, in sets of four, with the second and fourth lines rhyming). It does however utilize the repetition of words and phrases to create a sing-songy, grief-stricken effect and it nearly follows the rules of iambic heptameter with just a bit of deviation (six stanzas, three with six lines, one with seven, two with eight; the rhyme pattern differs slightly in each one). More importantly, Eddie Al referred to it as a ballad, so that’s good enough for me.
Written in 1849, “Annabel Lee” was not published until shortly after Eddie Al’s death later that same year. If there was an Annabel Lee who inspired the ballad, hopefully Poe and she are together again, happy, healthy, and enjoying the afterlife.
| Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan PoeIt 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. |
A Modern Re-Telling of Annabel LeeA long, long time ago In a city by the sea A sweet little cherry lived you may know With the handle Annabel Lee; And this chaif wanted nothing else Than to ‘kick it’ with 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. |
We met when we were children in the city by the sea; But we were totally into one another me and Annabel Lee; With a love that angels Tried to deny 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 sepulcher In this kingdom by the sea. |
And this is why, long ago, In the city by the sea, She caught her death of a cold Beautiful Annabel Lee; Her snotty, annoying family came And took her corpse from me, To lock it in a burial vault In the city 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. |
Jealous and murderous angels in heaven Killed her and took her from me- It’s true! And everybody in town knows it! That the wind that came that night, Killed 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. |
But we had a powerful love Stronger than people older than us- Stronger than people smarter than us- And not the murdering angels above, Or the demons that live in the sea, Can ever keep us apart, me and 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 the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea. |
I think about her all the time, My beautiful Annabel Lee; And I imagine the stars are the bright eyes Of beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, at night I snuggle with My lover, my squeeze, my 143, In the burial vault by the sea, In her tomb by the roaring sea. |
Not a bad bit of writing for a guy who was once dubbed by his commanding officer as “the worst cadet ever to attend West Point.”
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Theresa Bane
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