Annabel Lee
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.
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.
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 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 the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
By: Edgar Allan Poe
We must include a Poe poem here, and this is my favorite. These lines will be stuck in my head for days now.
I would like to offer up a short explaination of the following poem that has been inspired by "Annabel Lee." What really struck me about this poem was that the place of the poem is just as evident as the people. While the sea serves as a constant reminder of the place of this poem, it is not necessarily positive; however, the theme of place is really what I focused on, not the emotions. I hope you find "place" evident in the following poem!
ReplyDeleteMinnesota Calling
There’s a place I know,
Beautiful and serene,
Every fiber thrills to go
To the pines, deep and green.
Flee to the birches, now
I can’t hardly wait.
Truck bumper to boat bow
With hitch to pull the weight.
Through flats and gas
The road rolls on, unceasing.
South Dakota has almost past,
Anticipation-no-exuberance, increasing.
Give me the lapping
Of a lakeshore of sand.
I need the black-night tapping
Of rain rumbling from a cloud band.
What yearns more for the call and wail
Of the loon, haunting and cold
The heart can’t help of wonder and the tale
That this bird of the lake has told.
Finally, that rich moist scent
Of water and earth and air
Mixes with the stretching pines, bent
In that wind sent from heaven to Minnesota fair.
Cassandra
ReplyDelete------------------------------
She could not remember, she could only see forward
The future of her city
Her visions and dreams were alive and so real
The horrors of death yet to be.
Not a citizen there believed her or cares
She tried to make them see.
For she was cursed by Apollo to be flawed:
Her sight could save not even she.
The Greek men left troy after ten arduous years
The Trojans were blinded with glee.
Cassandra watched from her balcony’s ledge
Then shouted one desperate plea.
“Fair Trojans! My People! Do not be fooled!”
Her voice self-assured and free
“That horse is a ruse! The war is not won!”
The people ignored her decree.
That night as Troy slept in alcohol’s mists,
The Greeks in the horse did break free.
They started to kill and to burn and to rape
The Trojans awoke: so did she.
To Athena’s temple Cassandra did go,
She had find somewhere to flee
Its cool marble columns and statue of Gold
Seemed to say to her “Come unto me.”
At the alter she dropped, from exhaustion and shock,
And there she wept bitterly.
From the shadows strode Ajax, and with violent grasp,
Dragged her back down to the sea.
Through the centuries she has found me; I cannot understand
The prophecy I am to see.
But through me she speaks, and though no one will listen,
Cassandra still whispers her plea.