Thursday, September 06, 2007

I like any rock star that incorporates late 19th century poetry into their concerts. Last night I went to the Frosh Week Joel Plaskett concert on Dal Campus. It was quite fun, really great concert.

My favorite part though was during the last song which lasted about 15 minutes and was very Pink Floyd ish, Plaskett went through a lyric of Annabel Lee, the Edgar Allen Poe poem. Oddly enough I was the only person who recognized it among my friends. Bear in mind I am a science student and only took one arts course, English 1000 the whole time I was in university. Anyway it's a very pretty, but very sad poem, and I thought I would share it with you fine people.

Annabel Lee

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 winged 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 kinsman 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 the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

1 comment:

Julie said...

I did a middle-school project on this poem, back in the day. I re-wrote it very sarcastically and the teacher barely passed me because she didn't like my destruction of the Great Poe. (We had to write a parody. SOMEONE was gonna get destroyed. If it was so offensive, why the assignment?)

So, thanks for the memories. Not sure if they're good or bad. Hahaha.

But Poe, yeah, he was good.