![]() ![]() Poe never lived to see ‘Annabel Lee’ published: it appeared posthumously in the Southern Literary Messenger in November 1849. This keeps the metre of the poem on its toes (we might say it keeps the poem’s ‘feet’ on its toes), and reflects the sudden death of Annabel Lee as well as the ballad-like feel Poe is seeking to create, harking back to medieval ballads about true love and kingdoms by the sea. one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed). two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed) as opposed to iambs (i.e. ![]() Instead, the form of ‘Annabel Lee’ is actually a little more irregular: the poem begins with a stanza of alternating tetrameter and trimeter, true, but there are six lines rather than four, and the metre is more jaunty and lively than regular iambic metre: many of the feet are anapests (i.e. ![]() The poem has the ring of a ballad that has been passed down through oral tradition (and that was designed to be sung and danced to, accompanied by music), but it doesn’t follow the strict ballad metre (quatrains of alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter, rhymed abcb). Although ‘Annabel Lee’ is often described as a ballad, this is only half-true. ![]()
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