“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.”
Permalink: Edgar Allan Poe
About this quote
The poem opens with the speaker telling the story as fact, and the whole ballad is a love that survives the bride's death and the speaker's own. The last line of the stanza is the vow that makes the story sadder rather than safer.
Source: Annabel Lee