Annabel Lee

"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (1845)

Like “Annabel Lee,” “The Raven” mixes gothic imagery with a musical, incantatory versification which combines to form an unforgettable work of early American horror. However, where “Annabel Lee” balances its sense of dread with the affirmation of an enduring, unbreakable romantic love, “The Raven” fully leans into its nihilism, constantly upping the ante on a type of existentialist dread which, by the poem’s unforgettable final stanzas, leave the reader breathless in terror.

"The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe (1849)

If one most enjoys the rhyme (both regular and irregular) in “Annabel Lee,” “The Bells” is an ideal companion piece, given that it possesses a similar ear for the musical and the rhythmic and further leans into a celebration of obscure or precious words—“tintinnabulation,” for instance—that provides the sense that Poe—in full mastery of his poetic gifts—is showing off just how breathlessly gorgeous a stylist he can be.

"Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl" by John Greenleaf Whittier (1866)

Beyond Poe’s oeuvre, “Snowbound,” with its touches of magic and a dream-like sense of a winter idyl, is a fitting, more positive and life-affirming companion piece to “Annabel Lee.” Where Poe’s sense of the human experience was defined by bleakness, melancholy, and horror, Whittier, with his Quaker beliefs in the essential kindness and sanctity of his fellow man, provides the reader a lovely, nostalgic tribute to the experience of a close-knit family during a snowstorm.