It was many and many a year ago,

 

In a kingdom by the sea,

 

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

 

By the name of Annabel Lee;

 

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

 

Than to love and be loved by me.

 

I was a child and *she* was a child,

 

In this kingdom by the sea,

 

But we loved with a love that was more than love—

 

I and my Annabel Lee—

 

With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven

 

Coveted her and me.

 

And this was the reason that, long ago,

 

In this kingdom by the sea,

 

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

 

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

 

So that her highborn kinsmen came

 

And bore her away from me,

 

To shut her up in a sepulchre

 

In this kingdom by the sea.

 

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,

 

Went envying her and me—

 

Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,

 

In this kingdom by the sea)

 

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

 

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

 

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

 

Of those who were older than we—

 

Of many far wiser than we—

 

And neither the angels in Heaven above

 

Nor the demons down under the sea

 

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

 

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

 

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

 

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

 

Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,

 

In her sepulchre there by the sea—

 

In her tomb by the sounding sea.