Poe's 'Annabel Lee' for Crafting Poetry's January Selection

As per instructions from Crafting Poetry on Ravelry, I chose Edgar Allen Poe as my poet for January.  I could have gone the obvious way and picked ‘The Raven’ as my poem.  I do really like it.  Instead, I chose to go for the last complete poem that Poe created before he died in 1849.  It is often theorized that the title character, Annabel Lee, was patterned after Poe’s young wife, Virginia Clemm, who died of tuberculosis.

I grew up loving Poe, feeling badly about the crappy things that were dealt to him in life.  He never seemed to get a break.  He wrote amazing tales and poetry that I’m quite sure were heavily influenced by the happenings in his life. 

The piece that I chose to create is the Guernsey Wrap designed by Jared Flood.  I can see the speaker in the poem walking the beaches with Annabel Lee, both as children and later on before her death.  Winds coming off of  the sea tend to be chilly.  And it was ‘that the wind came out of a cloud, chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.’  I wanted something to wrap up poor Annabel Lee as she walked the beaches and cliffs.

 Below is a photo of the finished wrap and the poem, as written by Mr. Poe himself.  The finished wrap is long enough to toss around your shoulders and snuggle up with.  It's just hard to get a picture of it full length without help.

Annabel Lee  by Edgar Allen Poe
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.
She was a child and I 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 by night
Chilling my Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born 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 a cloud, 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 see 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 side of the sea.