Compare & Contrast: Poe’s “Annabel Lee” and Yeats’ “Cloths of Heaven” As two of the greatest classical poets in the history of literature, William Butler Yeats and Edgar Allen Poe constantly vie for my favored attentions. Their poems, such as “Annabel Lee” and “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” (now more commonly known as “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”), have set the tone for some of the greatest romantic poetry of our time. Both were made into songs which I have had the utmost privilege in learning and performing in choir.They also both speak of a profound, uncorrupted, and unfathomable love in which both of the narrators use details, and lack thereof, to paint their words into pictures in our minds. They share this unreserved and unrestrained ideal that love can overcome and abound through any obstacle, in this case death and poverty.
In this case, however, I prefer Annabel Lee where love is found, lost, yet still resounds. William Butler Yeats’ poem “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” was written in 1899 and is about a man who compares the essence of the heavens with the makings of his love for a woman.While the genders of the narrator and the love are not specifically detailed, the poem was written with Yeats’ character Aedh in mind as the narrator. He suggests that the heavens (everything above, not the biblical sense of the word) were carefully crafted and that he yearns to be able to give her this absolute and beautiful cloth.
He also shows the differing appearance of this “cloth” throughout the day when he states, “Of night and light and the half-light”.This could loosely be perceived that he is meaning that not only does he want to give her the heavens, but every sense of those heavens, throughout eternity. In the poem he states, “But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. ” He wishes he had the heavens to lie under her feet, but he is poor and can only offer her his dreams. He hopes that it will be enough and that she will accept and nurture them with love.
While the poem is rather short with only one eight line stanza, it is still considered an epic and brilliant piece of work by Yeats. Edgar Allen Poe’s “Annabel Lee” was Poe’s last completed poem and was written in 1849 and published after his death later that year. The narrator of the poem details his love for the maiden Annabel Lee whom he met in a “kingdom by the sea”. They were young lovers whose immeasurable love was so boundless the angels themselves coveted it. The narrator believes that this is why AnnabelLee was killed. Although he lost her, he still believes she is with him and sees her eyes in the stars and dreams of her every night as he slumbers by her tomb.
He states, “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. ” Their love was absolute and everlasting and he feels their souls are eternally intertwined.He admits they married young, but their ideal love is one that neither time nor death can assuage. The poem is one of many that Poe wrote with the theme of a beautiful woman lost. It is written almost like a sad love song, and Poe himself described it as ballad-like.
It is much longer with 6 stanzas of a total of forty-one lines of differing poetic structure. From laying the heavens at a lover’s feet to mourning an ideal love lasting throughout eternity, both poems are undoubtedly beautiful. While Yeats’ shorter poem is sweet and idyllic, Poe’s is darker and tragic.His dramatic detailing of love lost and entwining souls draws out almost every emotion. While reading it you feel alongside the narrator, the hope of new love, the almost obsessive worship, the pain of loss, the mourning, and the steadfast beating of one’s heart throughout it all.
Both poems have brilliant authors, but I feel Poe simply gave more of himself and more to the reader to feel. You’re able to submerse yourself into his world and experience the heart’s most complicated emotions, love and loss.
