An extremely brief background:
Edgar Allan Poe lived in the early 1800s, in various states on the east coast. He was a pretty troubled guy, and he wrote great poetry and stories. The most well known is "The Raven", but here are some of my favorites:
"Annabel Lee"
It was many and many a year ago,
I was a child and she was a child,
And this was the reason that, long ago,
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
In visions of the dark night
Ah! what is not a dream by day
That holy dream- that holy dream,
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
(My favorite Poe poem!)
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.
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 winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
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.
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.
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 the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
"A Dream"
I have dreamed of joy departed-
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
So trembled from afar-
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?
