(Poem 291 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

It was many a long age ago,
     In a village by the sea,
That a woman was found washed ashore
     By the name of Annabel Lee;
She was barely alive but wanted nothing more
     Than to hide her identity.

She was so young, so very young,
     In this village by the sea,
But she cared for her friends and grew strong—
     This lovely Annabel Lee—
She held her secrets close to her chest
     So she could remain free.

But one cold, lonely night,
     In this village by the sea,
She decided to share her long sad tale
     The mysterious Annabel Lee;
She faked her death to escape a man
     And boarded a ship to flee,

But the ship was wrecked and that is how
     She washed up with the debris.
She didn’t know why she was cursed so,
     Why Heaven would not let her be—
Or why the man who claimed her soul
     Would not set her free.
That is why she faked her death,
     The brave Annabel Lee.

But she feared he would find her
     The man she did flee—
     The man she tried to flee—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
     Nor the demons down under the sea
Could protect her now from the evil man
     Who was obsessed with Annabel Lee;

So our village, her people, we crowded around
     To protect our Annable Lee;
And when a man arrived to find the tomb
     Of the beautiful Annabel Lee
We took him to an old corpse we dug up
     And dressed in a wedding gown
     And there he lived by the sea—
     With someone he thought was Annabel Lee.          

@Home Studio – 291^st poem of the year  (A response to Poe’s “Annabel Lee”)

Runner ups for the Lady by the Sea photos to accompany my poem: