Annabel Lee Analysis

Love is pain. Pain is love. These words have epitomized the majority
of Edgar Allan Poe tragedies, love being the theme of humanity. We all
love, but hope to be loved. But, being love comes with a cost, as Annabel
Lee would soon come to realize.
The story consists of Annabel and the unnamed narrator journeying
in a tragic road, full of powerful jealously and a love that conquered even
the gates of death.
The angels, usually biblically portrayed as the winged servants of
God, helping rain down blessings on good people, but consequences to
evildoers. But in this story, angels are portrayed in the same manner, but
with the mentality that they are greater than love itself, that human beauty
and compassion couldn’t possibly surpass them. But, Annabel Lee’s love to
her unnamed lover spited them, and the mere idea that their love for each
was far greater than them infuriated them. Their jealousy soon morphed
into pure hatred, and they sought to decapitate this hate. By murdering
Annabel Lee, they inadvertently fueled the narrator’s love for her, which
continued to blossom despite them now being in two different worlds.
Summarizing all of this, the main theme for Annabel Lee is simple.
For love is so powerful, even the laws of life and death can’t separate two
lovers apart. Love can compel two people together, not jealousy nor hatred
and deter them apart. Love is that powerful; the angel’s jealousy for the
two only emphasized the second theme.
Power, even immortal god-like power, simply can’t compare to the
true power of love. As godly as the angels were, they underestimated one
quality. They underestimated the power of human compassion. Not even
the laws of life and death could separate the couple from each other. Their
own humanity separated them from the angels, who weren’t able to love
even though they were loved. Because Annabel and the narrator could love
and be loved, they were envied by the angels who weren’t able to love.
Invictus by William
Ernest Henley
Analysis
It’s ironic that the poet, William Ernest Henley, was actually stricken with
tuberculosis from an early age and was lying on his hospital bed while writing this.
Invictus, now one of the most iconic poems of all times, still to this day, holds true
the virtues of humanity. The few characteristics that have transcended over time
and still hold true to this very day. Invictus may have the most iconic sixteen lines
in literature history, but the theme still holds on to the world of today. How, you
may ask? Well, first, you have to look at the story behind the story.
A man, already having seen his fill of trials and tragedy in his life, calmly
awaits the arms of death. His life was riddled with pain and suffering, but he
embraces the afterlife with an open arm. His head bloodied, but unbowed, is one
of the more famous lines in the poem. This short excerpt is more powerful than
you may think. This man is going through both emotional and physical pain, his
life is biting away at his soul, but he doesn’t succumb to it. Staring dead at the
face of adversity, he doesn’t bow and worship at but, but instead stands tall and
spits in its face. His life tattered and ready to end, he knows the end is inevitable,
but he continues living in the moment, always relishing ever second to constantly
defy that cold grasp of death, to take in one more breath of fresh air.
In Latin, Invictus means “Undefeated”, which in a way, embodies all that
about humanity. We all strive to be the captains of our souls. The nature of
humanity is not to be contained and taught through metal bars, but to be free;
exploring the world around us; striving not to be shackled down by the laws of life
and death. As human beings, our minds can’t be conquered by the things that
revolve around us, we alone control our fate. So, in a long story short, we are all
Invictus.
The Road Not Taken by
Robert Frost
Analysis
The road not taken by many is often the best road to take. That statement
could be interpreted in many, many different ways. The road not covered with
footsteps, may possess a reward worthy of the individual willing to break
formation; to break tradition.
“Dare to break tradition”. Dare to be different, in other words. In life,
people are different. We have different personalities, different philosophies, and
different views on life. We’re all different in our own unique way, we all see life
differently. We all walk different paths in life, no two the same. Some people are
lawyers, some people are businessmen. Some people’s paths are intertwined
together, but their identities are still different. We all can’t walk the same path
home; we all can’t follow in someone else’s footsteps.
Your parents tend to inspire you; inspire you to one day, follow in their
footsteps. And, if you choose to do that, more power to you. But if you choose
you make your own road, you’ll discover your own identity. You have a purpose in
life, good or bad; you were meant to do something. Maybe you can break
tradition and travel down the road to obtaining a college degree, a road your
family has ignored for far too long. Or in the long line of doctors in the family, you
can become a lawyer, and strive to be different, to find your place in the world.
The road with no footsteps is often the best road to take.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading and analyzing all three poems we discussed
in class. I really had to dig down to find the right words to use and I’ve interpreted
each poem’s general message the best I could. But, if I was picking favorites here,
the best poem I’ve ever read would probably be “Invictus” by William Ernest
Henley, because of its blunt simplicity. By blunt simplicity I mean it just tells you
the general message of the poem. Lines like, “I am the master of my fate” and
“I am the captain of my soul” really signify that the narrator walks his own path,
never wavering from it; that he, and he alone runs his own life. Invictus doesn’t
really involve a story or group of specified characters, but it doesn’t need to. By
not including a name, the reader can pour him or himself into the narrator’s role,
and thus relate more to the message. It’s not an overly drawn out fictional
narrative or a drawling biography, it drills into the very epitome of human
resilience, that even in the face of adversity, we’ll keep fighting, and our heads
shall never bow down because it was “too hard” or “too far away”. We are all
Invictus, and that’s why it’s my favorite poem.
Robert Frost’s poem too has a very hard-hitting theme of a forked road
which symbolizes two choices we all have to make in life.
That poem too was very intriguing to read and I enjoyed his style as well. But, my
second-favorite poem was probably “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe. Again, I
thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It’s theme of human compassion surpassing even
the most powerful can still connect in today’s day and age. Angels may be
immortal, but love lives forever, to sum it up. Angels were the winged servants of
all that was good in the world, but the one thing that bound them back, was
human love. Their inability to love caused their own moral undoing. Thus,
jealously was born from their inability to garner compassionate human emotions.
Again, I thoroughly enjoyed reading and analyzing these poems because of their
very diverse universal themes. They’re all different; each poem was narrated by a
different author with a different style of writing. It was very fun, yet challenging at
the same time.