Librivox.org has 7 readings of Annabel Lee as March 2009, (We are using Mr. H.
Jeong's reading at the moment). The readings seem to be equally
divided between the version Poe gave to Rufus Wilmot Griswold and the one he
later gave to John Thompson, although some are a combination of the two.
How do you tell which is which? The first difference will usually be in the first
line of the second stanza reversing the order of who was a child. The last stanza will say
"sounding sea" (Griswold), and may say "feel the bright eyes;"
instead of "side of the sea" and "see the bright eyes" (Thompson).
Edgar Allan Poe reportedly gave one version to Rufus Wilmot Griswold, and then a
later one to the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, John R. Thompson not
long before Poe's death. Some believe that the one given to Thompson represented
Poe's definitive wishes regarding the poem; however, had he lived, he may have
concurred with popular opinion in preferring :the "sounding sea."
featuring readings of the: Thompson version
and the Griswold version
flash music player.
click on a reading to start
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.
Iwas 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 wingéd 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, by night
chilling my beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsmen 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.
Although Edgar Allan Poe wrote the poem,
Alone, in 1829, when he was 20 years old (the same year that his foster mother,
Frances Allan, died), it was not published during his short lifetime. The untitled work was discovered after his
death, and was actually first published in 1875.
... Even if Poe was pouring out his desire to reunite with Virginia in the hereafter into these immortal rhymes,
Poe wrote other poems concerning dead lovers well before this.
