Question

And all my days are trances, And all my nightly dreams Are where thy grey eye glances, And where thy footstep gleams- In what ethereal dances, By what eternal streams. How are the ideas in the excerpt similar to Poe’s ideas in the final stanza of "Annabel Lee"?

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

The final stanza of "Annabel Lee" is as follows:

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.

As we can see, both stanzas depict a dream-like moment that is both romanticized, in terms of love, as well as somber, even macabre. Both excerpts convey the idea that the speaker's loved one is no longer here, but in an ethereal world, beyond this one. The speaker is somehow haunted by the memory of that person, eternally incapable of letting go, forever trapped by that love. That memory may cause them happiness as well as sorrow, but that is of no relevance. It is suffering anyway. Not being able to let go, not being able to move with their own lives, both speakers are destined to suffer.