In Her Tomb by the Sounding Sea: A Radical Reconsideration of the Manuscripts of “Annabel Lee”

Abstract “Annabel Lee” is Poe’s final poem, and although it was intended for publication, it appeared in print only after his death. It was, however, distributed during his lifetime in the form of five manuscripts, all of which survive to this day as cherished relics of the author. The speculative date assigned to each of these manuscripts, and consequently the sequence of revisions, has traditionally been based on when Poe gave them away over the course of the last five or six months of his life. This approach has historically granted the Thompson copy, which Poe had with him in Richmond, the high status of the final and thus the definitive authorized version. Two minor verbal changes have generally been accepted as of little consequence, but many commentators have lamented that the final line of the Thompson version changes “In her tomb by the sounding sea” to “In her tomb by the side of the sea.” Looking carefully at the circumstances surrounding the creation and distribution of these manuscripts, as well as the texts themselves, suggests a radically different opinion of the sequence of revisions and a reconsideration of some importance in the matter of textual criticism of these texts for one of Poe’s most studied and popular poems.