Annabel Lee – Edgar Allan Poe | Sung Poem with Classic Paintings (AI Music)

“It was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea…” Poe's last poem, “Annabel Lee” (1849), sung over moonlit seas, angels and Cot's The Storm. 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. I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea: But we loved with a love that was more than love— I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me— Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. 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: 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 the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea. Paintings (in order of appearance) 0:00 Winslow Homer – "Moonlight, Wood Island Light", 1894 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) 0:24 Claude-Joseph Vernet – "Night: A Port in the Moonlight", 1771 (Louvre) 0:44 Pierre Auguste Cot – "Springtime", 1873 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) · then Abbott Handerson Thayer – "Angel", 1887 (Smithsonian American Art Museum) 1:09 Pierre Auguste Cot – "The Storm", 1880 (Metropolitan Museum of Art), CC0 1:28 Anne-Louis Girodet – "The Entombment of Atala", 1808 (Louvre) · then William-Adolphe Bouguereau – "Song of the Angels", 1881 (Forest Lawn Museum) 1:55 Ralph Albert Blakelock – "Moonlight", c. 1885-89 2:17 Ary Scheffer – "The Ghosts of Paolo and Francesca Appear to Dante and Virgil", 1854 version · then Gustave Doré – "The Destruction of Leviathan", 1865-66 (Doré Bible engraving) 2:38 Evelyn De Morgan – "The Angel of Death", 1880 2:50 Albert Pinkham Ryder – "Moonlit Cove", c. 1880-90 (Phillips Collection) 3:06 Edvard Munch – "Starry Night", 1893 (J. Paul Getty Museum) 3:23 Arnold Böcklin – "Villa by the Sea", 1871-74 · then Caspar David Friedrich – "The Abbey in the Oakwood", 1809-10 (Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin) 3:46 Arnold Böcklin – "Ruin by the Sea", 1881 3:57 Portrait of the poet Poet portrait: Unknown photographer – "Annie" daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe, June 1849 (restored by Yann Forget and Adam Cuerden) The music was made with AI. The poem and the paintings are in the public domain; images via Wikimedia Commons. #AnnabelLee #EdgarAllanPoe #Poetry #SungPoetry #AIMusic