Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809. Poe was an American poet and short story writer. His father left his family after Poe's birth, and his mother died of tuberculosis about three years later. Therefore, Poe never knew his parents and was raised by John and Francis Allan, friends of Poe's parents. Poe attended the University of Virginia in 1926. However, his gambling debts caused him to drop out within two semesters. After leaving college, Poe joined the Southern Literary Messenger. This helped him begin writing short stories and poems and becoming a renowned literary critic, but due to his aggressive criticism and alcoholism he was removed from the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1836, Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. Eleven years later, Clemm would die of tuberculosis, the same cause of death as Poe's mother ("SparkNotes on Poe's Short Stories" SparkNotes.com). Virginia Clemm's death is said to have inspired the poem "Annabel Lee" which discusses the beauty and death of women. Poe uses imagery to create a setting that is both beautiful and haunting, as well as internal rhyme and alliteration to create flow in the poem. “Annabel Lee” is a narrative poem that tells the love story between the narrator and his lover, Annabel Lee. The rhyme scheme is not consistent throughout the poem. The poem begins as an ABABCB rhyme scheme. However, in the second stanza, Poe begins to use a variation of an anaphora repeating his words in the seventh line: "I was a child and she was a child." Although this does not help with the coherence of the poem, it does contribute to the flow of the poem. Because Poe used anaphora, it helps to emphasize the innocence of the love shared between the narrato...... middle of paper......or Annabel Lee. At first it was beautiful and majestic. However, things took a turn for the worse when she died. Because he had a lot of love for her, he was devastated and you could say that a part of himself died with her. This resulted in his naivety "of those who were older than us -/much wiser than us -" saying that nothing can separate them, not even death "And so, all night long, I lie beside . » This poem was a remembrance of Poe's wife, Virginia Clemm, and how much it tore Poe apart. He writes this in remembrance and to cope with the death of his beloved wife. Works Cited Poe, Edgar Allan. “Annabel Lee.” Nicolas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. Literary poetry: craft and voice. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. 438. Print.SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Poe's short stories. » SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Internet. April 9. 2014.