When reading Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven” back to back, it places the audience in a bewildered state. On one hand, there is this poem that focuses on the immortal memory of Annabel Lee, but on the other hand, there is this dark short story which has Death giving answers to the narrator all the way to the point of his madness. “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven” are not strictly contrasting towards each other, but also harmonizing from the tone that they set, their meanings, and how they approach grief. These comparisons demonstrate the diversity that a phenomenal writer such as Poe is able to exhibit. In “Annabel Lee”, the optimism of the speaker must be deeply dug within the poem in order to find it. Although he does briefly speak of her passing, he tends to focus on her alone by calling her “my darling” or “[...] the beautiful Annabel Lee”. The narrator is very much in love with “the maiden” making it difficult to strictly view this as a sorrowful poem. In “The Raven”, however, the tone and …show more content…
This makes it the beautifying part of the pieces and the sorrow is its fuel. When reading “Annabel Lee”, the reader can see that the love narrator had for his bride was strong, beautiful, and pure. “The Raven” also had a deep love for his Lenore. The similarity between the two writing is simply “eternal love”. On the contrary, however, the man in “Annabel Lee” sleeps by his wife’s tomb every night showing he has not moved on from her death while the man in “The Raven” questions the bird to the point of acceptance and madness. “And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon 's that is dreaming, / And the lamp-light o 'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; / And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor / Shall be lifted - nevermore!” The two narrators lucidly can not continue from the loss of their