The poem "Annabel Lee" is about a young man's love for a woman named Annabel Lee. They fell in love as children in a kingdom by the sea. However, a wind arose and chilled Annabel Lee, causing her death. The young man insists their love was stronger than any other love and that he will always be bound to her soul. The memory of Annabel Lee haunts him, appearing in his dreams brought by the moon and stars over the sea by their gravesite.
2. Annabel Lee
It was many and many a year ago, The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
In a kingdom by the sea, Went envying her and me-
That a maiden there lived whom you Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
may know That the wind came out of the cloud by
By the name of ANNABEL LEE; night,
And this maiden she lived with no Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
other thought
Than to love and be loved by me. But our love it was stronger by far than the
love
I was a child and she was a child, Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
In this kingdom by the sea; And neither the angels in heaven above,
But we loved with a love that was more Nor the demons down under the sea,
than love- Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
I and my Annabel Lee; Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
With a love that the winged seraphs of
heaven For the moon never beams without bringing
Coveted her and me. me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright
And this was the reason that, long ago, eyes
In this kingdom by the sea, Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the
My beautiful Annabel Lee; side
So that her highborn kinsman came Of my darling- my darling- my life and my
And bore her away from me, bride,
To shut her up in a sepulchre In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
In this kingdom by the sea.
4. Poetry
• Expresses a mood or feeling
• Uses fewer words than prose
• Share something special with images
– Carefully chosen words
5. What is POETRY?
Poetry is an art form in which human
language is used for its aesthetic qualities
in addition to, or instead of, its notional
and semantic content. It consists largely of
oral or literary works in which language is
used in a manner that is felt by its user
and audience to differ from ordinary prose.
6. What is Poetry?
It may use condensed or compressed form
to convey emotion or ideas to the reader's
or listener's mind or ear; it may also use
devices such as assonance and repetition
to achieve musical or incantatory effects.
Poems frequently rely for their effect on
imagery, word association, and the
musical qualities of the language used.
The interactive layering of all these effects
to generate meaning is what marks poetry.
7. What is Poetry?
Nature of emphasizing linguistic form rather
than using language purely for its content
8. POETRY Terms
• Stanza; a division of a poem consisting of
a series of lines arranged together in a
usually recurring pattern of meter and
rhyme
• Meter; basic rhythmic structure of a line
9. Examples: Stanza
Where the Sidewalk Ends
from the book "Where the Sidewalk Ends" (1974)
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
and before the street begins,
and there the grass grows soft and white,
and there the sun burns crimson bright,
and there the moon-bird rests from his flight
to cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
and the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow
and watch where the chalk-white arrows go
to the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
and we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
for the children, they mark, and the children, they know,
the place where the sidewalk ends.
10. Examples: Meter
Hug O'War
from the book "Where the Sidewalk Ends" (1974)
I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.
11. Abstract Imagery
• Language that describes qualities that
cannot be perceived with the five senses.
• For instance, calling something pleasant
or pleasing is abstract, while calling
something yellow or sour is concrete. The
word domesticity is abstract, but the word
sweat is concrete.
15. Sounds in POETRY
• Perhaps the most vital element of sound in poetry
is rhythm. Often the rhythm of each line is arranged
in a particular meter.
– The measured arrangement of words in poetry, as by
accentual rhythm, syllabic quantity, or the number of
syllables in a line.
– A particular arrangement of words in poetry, such as
iambic pentameter, determined by the kind and number
of metrical units in a line.
– The rhythmic pattern of a stanza, determined by the kind
and number of lines.
• Poetry often uses rhyme. Rhyme at the end of lines
is the basis of a number of common poetic forms
16. Sounds in POETRY
• Alliteration often plays a key role in poetry
– Repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of
words or phrases
• Rabbits running over roses
• Dressy daffodils
– Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds
• “Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living
things. So old it is that no man knows how and why the first poems
came.”
– Consonance is a poetic device characterized by the repetition of
the same consonant two or more times in short succession
• Both alliteration and rhyme, when used in poetic
structures, help to emphasize and define a rhythmic
pattern
17. Alliteration
Rain
Rain races,
Ripping like Laughing Lions
wind. Laughing lions
Its restless laugh
rage like jumping jaguars Caring Cats
Rattles like on top of talking Caring cats cascade
Rocks ripping trees. off
through When Laughing lamas
The air. the Lounging.
Wind Whistles talking trees start Underneath yelling
talking, yaks,
Wind whistles the joking Yelling at roaming
through the air, jaguars fall Rats.
while off.
talking turtles shiver
like sea horses
while everyone is
asleep
18. Assonance Poems
Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And an in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
From the fourth stanza:
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
19. Assonance Poems
From folk that sat on the terrace and drew out the even
long
Sudden crowings of laughter, monotonous drone of song;
The quiet passage of souls over his head in the trees; {2g}
And from all around the haven the crumbling thunder of
seas.
"Farewell, my home," said Rua. "Farewell, O quiet seat!
To-morrow in all your valleys the drum of death shall beat.
21. How to Analyze POETRY
• To study or analyze poetry, one must consider many
elements.
• A good way to start is by reading the poem silently.
• Then read the poem a second (third, fourth) time aloud.
• Reading the poem aloud makes its meaning clearer and
you will hear the various poetic sound devices such as
alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, etc.
• Then try writing down a brief summary to make sure that
you are understanding the poem.
• Remember to read sentence by sentence not line by
line.
