Compare And Contrast Annabel Lee And The Highwayman

True love endures the greatest tragedies. A classic message presented by many poems, two of which are “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allen Poe and “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes. Both start like fairy tales: an adorable, loving couple who seem inseparable. Then, by some insane cause, whether by the angels themselves or royal soldiers, the woman dies. The man is left to continue their love in one way or another. Through their choices, they prove that love has no bounds, which is the theme of the two poems. In “Annabel Lee,” the theme starts to come out during the most tragic moment: “The angels, sot half so happy in heaven went envying her and me/that the wind came out of the cloud, chilling/ and killing my Annabel Lee,” (Poe 21-26). Annabel Lee,

In fact, he gets over it in less than two days. For some context, Bess (the Highwayman’s love interest) has a lot more detailed death than Annabel Lee. A worker at the inn overhears her and the Highwayman talking, so when he leaves she gets bound and gagged with a musket by royal soldiers to be used as bait to catch the Highwayman. She then heroically shoots herself to warn her love that the inn is lo longer safe. “Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath/shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him - with her death.” (Noyes, 75-78). Getting the message as a fugitive, the highwayman turned and ran away on his horse. However, news apparently traveled fast and the next morning, he heard of what had happened, how is beloved and died and he wasn’t there to do anything about it. To make sure she didn’t die in vain, although her mission had been fulfilled and he had escaped, the Highwayman runs back to the inn, only to be shot dead by the soldiers: “Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to te sky/Blood red were his spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat/when they shot him down on the highway,” 85-88). Although Bess had died, and the highwayman soon after, they met again in death. Proving, once again, that nothing can hold back true