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Edgar Allan PoeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (1845)
Like “Annabel Lee,” “The Raven” mixes gothic imagery with a musical, incantatory versification which combines to form an unforgettable work of early American horror. However, where “Annabel Lee” balances its sense of dread with the affirmation of an enduring, unbreakable romantic love, “The Raven” fully leans into its nihilism, constantly upping the ante on a type of existentialist dread which, by the poem’s unforgettable final stanzas, leave the reader breathless in terror.
"The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe (1849)
If one most enjoys the rhyme (both regular and irregular) in “Annabel Lee,” “The Bells” is an ideal companion piece, given that it possesses a similar ear for the musical and the rhythmic and further leans into a celebration of obscure or precious words—“tintinnabulation,” for instance—that provides the sense that Poe—in full mastery of his poetic gifts—is showing off just how breathlessly gorgeous a stylist he can be.
"Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl" by John Greenleaf Whittier (1866)
Beyond Poe’s oeuvre, “Snowbound,” with its touches of magic and a dream-like sense of a winter idyl, is a fitting, more positive and life-affirming companion piece to “Annabel Lee.” Where Poe’s sense of the human experience was defined by bleakness, melancholy, and horror, Whittier, with his Quaker beliefs in the essential kindness and sanctity of his fellow man, provides the reader a lovely, nostalgic tribute to the experience of a close-knit family during a snowstorm.
By Edgar Allan Poe
A Dream Within a Dream
A Dream Within a Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Berenice
Berenice
Edgar Allan Poe
Hop-Frog
Hop-Frog
Edgar Allan Poe
Ligeia
Ligeia
Edgar Allan Poe
Tamerlane
Tamerlane
Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Cat
The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe
The Cask of Amontillado
The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe
The Conqueror Worm
The Conqueror Worm
Edgar Allan Poe
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Edgar Allan Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe
The Gold Bug
The Gold Bug
Edgar Allan Poe
The Haunted Palace
The Haunted Palace
Edgar Allan Poe
The Imp of the Perverse
The Imp of the Perverse
Edgar Allan Poe
The Lake
The Lake
Edgar Allan Poe
The Man of the Crowd
The Man of the Crowd
Edgar Allan Poe
The Masque of the Red Death
The Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan Poe
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Edgar Allan Poe
The Oval Portrait
The Oval Portrait
Edgar Allan Poe
The Philosophy of Composition
The Philosophy of Composition
Edgar Allan Poe