Analysis of For Annie
Edgar Allan Poe 1809 (Boston) – 1849 (Baltimore)
Thank Heaven! the crisis-
The danger is past,
And the lingering illness
Is over at last-
And the fever called "Living"
Is conquered at last.
Sadly, I know
I am shorn of my strength,
And no muscle I move
As I lie at full length-
But no matter!-I feel
I am better at length.
And I rest so composedly,
Now, in my bed
That any beholder
Might fancy me dead-
Might start at beholding me,
Thinking me dead.
The moaning and groaning,
The sighing and sobbing,
Are quieted now,
With that horrible throbbing
At heart:- ah, that horrible,
Horrible throbbing!
The sickness- the nausea-
The pitiless pain-
Have ceased, with the fever
That maddened my brain-
With the fever called "Living"
That burned in my brain.
And oh! of all tortures
That torture the worst
Has abated- the terrible
Torture of thirst
For the naphthaline river
Of Passion accurst:-
I have drunk of a water
That quenches all thirst:-
Of a water that flows,
With a lullaby sound,
From a spring but a very few
Feet under ground-
From a cavern not very far
Down under ground.
And ah! let it never
Be foolishly said
That my room it is gloomy
And narrow my bed;
For man never slept
In a different bed-
And, to sleep, you must slumber
In just such a bed.
My tantalized spirit
Here blandly reposes,
Forgetting, or never
Regretting its roses-
Its old agitations
Of myrtles and roses:
For now, while so quietly
Lying, it fancies
A holier odor
About it, of pansies-
A rosemary odor,
Commingled with pansies-
With rue and the beautiful
Puritan pansies.
And so it lies happily,
Bathing in many
A dream of the truth
And the beauty of Annie-
Drowned in a bath
Of the tresses of Annie.
She tenderly kissed me,
She fondly caressed,
And then I fell gently
To sleep on her breast-
Deeply to sleep
From the heaven of her breast.
When the light was extinguished,
She covered me warm,
And she prayed to the angels
To keep me from harm-
To the queen of the angels
To shield me from harm.
And I lie so composedly,
Now, in my bed,
(Knowing her love)
That you fancy me dead-
And I rest so contentedly,
Now, in my bed,
(With her love at my breast)
That you fancy me dead-
That you shudder to look at me,
Thinking me dead.
But my heart it is brighter
Than all of the many
Stars in the sky,
For it sparkles with Annie-
It glows with the light
Of the love of my Annie-
With the thought of the light
Of the eyes of my Annie.
Scheme | ababcb xdxded eFgfhF ccxcic xjgjcj xkikgbgk xlxlxl gfhfxfgf xagmam hngngnin hhxhxh hohoxo xxpqpq eFxFhFoFhF ghxhrhrh |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110010 01011 0010010 11011 0010110 11011 1011 111111 011011 111111 111011 111011 01111 1011 110010 11011 1110101 1011 010010 010010 11001 1110010 1111100 10010 0100100 01001 111010 1111 1010110 11011 011110 11001 10100100 1011 10110 1101 1111010 11011 101011 10101 10110101 1101 10101101 1101 011110 11001 1111110 01011 11101 001001 0111110 01101 11010 1101 010110 010110 111 110010 1111100 10110 010010 011110 01010 010110 1100100 10010 0111100 10010 01101 0010110 1001 1010110 110011 11001 011110 11101 1011 1010101 1011010 11011 0111010 11111 1011010 11111 01111 1011 1001 111011 01110100 1011 101111 111011 11101111 1011 1111110 111010 1001 1110110 11101 1011110 101101 1011110 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 3,569 |
Words | 451 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 15 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 8, 6, 8, 6, 8, 6, 6, 6, 10, 8 |
Lines Amount | 102 |
Letters per line (avg) | 18 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 121 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 22, 2023
- 2:15 min read
- 210 Views
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"For Annie" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8442/for-annie>.
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