May, 1849 to 1849

NEW YORK, New York

Cult of Death, Disease, Poetry, Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee, tuberculosis, love

Edgar Allan Poe spent his final months in poverty, tormented by grief, drowning his depression in alcohol and poetry. In May 1849, in his small New York cottage, he wrote what was to be his last completed poem, “Annabel Lee,” in which he returned to the themes that had haunted him for much of his life. The poem, set long ago in a kingdom by the sea, describes the speaker’s undying love for the...