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.

 Edger Allan Poe : Annabel Lee 

（This is a column. Japanese version from the link below.）

I came across this poem when I was very young, and I may not have known what it meant at the time. But I liked the sound of that “Annabel Lee”. Language barriers may be insurmountable without experience and understanding, but ‘sound’ transcends them. For example, Jabberwocky in Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass is an incoherent poem because it is made up of what the author calls ‘coined words’, but you can get an idea from the rhythm of the sound and, “For example, as the protagonist Alice remarked, when she said, ‘However, somebody killed something,’ she indicated that this much could be discerned from the nonsensical poem.”

The words that stick with me in Annabel Lee are: beautiful, kingdom by the sea, angel, demon, “Of the beautiful Annabel Lee” Even if it was in Japanese, that was enough for me, because each word has a ‘synesthesia’, but as I learn to understand English, I can tell that the poem is from a male perspective and that a girl, the beautiful Annabel Lee, has died. Then,as you develop a deeper appreciation for literature, you get to know the background of this poetic sentiment. We learn that this reflects the author Poe’s love for his first wife, Virginia.

I found that it reminds me of Novalis, the German writer and poet who died young. He too lost the love of his life at a young age; however, he was unable to complete what Freud called his ‘work of mourning’ (Trauerarbeit) — making peace with death to continue living in this world and prioritizing the living over the dead. For a long time, I had no doubt that Annabel Lee was such a poem. However, when I learned that Poe was engaged to another woman in the year the poem was written, and later died under suspicious circumstances, I simply thought it was not Novalisian, my mind lost its consistency, and the poem’s significance gradually diminished for me.

One rainy day, I went to my usual English Mass. Despite using an umbrella, both my clothes and hair got wet. Before Mass started, we said the rosary. Perhaps distracted by the droplets trickling down my hair, or perhaps subconsciously drawn to the notion of ‘water,’ I accidentally said “Kingdom by the sea” when we reached the word ‘Kingdom’. That phrase is from Poe’s poem. However, this slip of the tongue made me realize something. It dawned on me that the use of ‘kingdom’ in that poem was inherently Christian. ‘Thy kingdom come,’ where ‘thy’ is an archaic form of ‘you,’ translates to ‘adveniat regnum tuum’ in Latin.

In Latin ‘adveniat regnum tuum’, ‘adveniat’ is a conjunction, it does not mean ‘I’ or ‘you’, but expresses the desire for something ‘One’ to come; regum corresponds to dominion, sovereignty, to . This is a passage in which we pray that the world we live in may be reached by the Lord, if we were to put it ‘safely’ according to Japanese values.

After we die, while we imagine moving from this world to the heavenly kingdom (heaven), for those of us still living, ‘come’ is a prayer for God to turn towards us. I realized that the ‘kingdom’ in Poe’s poem represents a seaside cemetery, a site desiring God’s gaze.

There appears to be another true American story that served as inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe’s poem ‘Annabel Lee’, details of which were published in a newspaper two days after Poe’s death.　The tale unfolds as follows: a young woman and a sailor, lovers despite differing social status, clandestinely met in a cemetery. Tragically, the maiden passed away. Her father refused to disclose the cemetery’s location to the sailor. Despite this, the sailor, who cherished her, persistently sought out her grave.

In his book ‘Departure from Love and Recognition,’ Japanese writer Kurata Hyakuso wrote: ‘I felt that I could not do without the soul that embraced me.’Kurata was in his twenties when he wrote this, and I believe it serves as a good example of poetry’  love.”

However, love alone is not enough. To actualize love, ‘sensation’ is necessary, requiring sensitivity.

I have always regarded ‘susceptibility’ and ‘gift’ as equivalent. Love inherently has an object, yet Confirming the ‘existence’ of sensitivity is not achieved by holding hands with someone or by asking someone. It simply resides within the heart, at a crossroads between being deemed ‘nature’ or a ‘gift’（god). While the two are inseparable, labeling susceptibility as ‘sacred to oneself alone’ leads to inherent contradictions. As Poe’s poetry illuminates, the vitality of susceptibility is rooted in its empathy on ‘others’, and should they neglect it, it risks withering into obscurity.

In Christianity, especially Catholicism, including the Catechism and Balthasar’s theology, faith involves more than just individual sensitivity and experience—it’s also about being rooted in the Church, society, and community. This point is often misunderstood; it does not imply depriving individuals of their sensitivity. When considering non-religion, a question arises: does it truly safeguard individual sensitivity? One advantage of non-religion is the freedom it offers from church involvement and the obligation to return one’s ‘gifts’ to God. Moreover, regardless of whether Jesus existed, the need for societal appreciation, contribution, and the necessity for a writer to present their work to society raise a question about ‘expropriation.’ What is the difference between being appropriated solely by secular standards and having one’s soul achieve something that is returned to God? This distinction is significant in the context of faith.

Well，See the end of Poe’s poem.

The poem prominently features refrains and a rhyme scheme toward its conclusion. Refrains like ‘Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE;’ and ‘Of my darling — my darling — my life and my bride,’ emphasize the poem’s rhythmic and emotional depth. The rhyme pairs ‘dreams’ and ‘Lee’, ‘rise’ and ‘eyes’, ‘side’ and ‘bride’, and ‘sea’ and ‘sea’, reinforcing the auditory harmony and the poem’s meter. These grammatical elements are distinctive of Poe’s style, lending unique sound and rhythm to his poetry.

In the poem, the narrator lies ‘till dawn’ beside ‘Annabel Lee’s’ grave, located in a ‘kingdom by the sea.’ The imagery of the sea’s tide, coming and going, mirrors the words ‘bride’ and by the ‘side’. The choice to call the seaside tomb a ‘kingdom’ suggests Poe’s intention to portray it as a divine meeting place, a ‘kingdom’ awaiting God’s arrival, akin to a prayer invocation. Despite its melancholic tone, resonating with the essence of death, the poem is imbued with enduring love and happiness.

The ambiguity of both the girl and the narrator in the poem, with neither fully understanding who they are, realistically portrays the process of forgetting a love. In a state of being emotionally enveloped—or ‘soul-hugging’—such poetry could not be written. Instead, a more direct expression of love would likely emerge. The poem starts with ‘It was many and many a year ago…’, indicating a psychological distance, suggesting it represents a fading memory. Poe’s first wife, Virginia, was mentally handicapped and only 13 years old at their marriage. He also wrote hymns to Catholicism. Given these few circumstances, it’s difficult to ascertain his faith, especially since he left much mystery about his own awareness of impending death while loving and proposing to another woman. Yet, his attempt to preserve these feelings in his poetry might be considered a mysterious kind of ‘expropriation’.

Why do we discuss human love, or recite poetry? Why does human love prompt such associations?

The best proof of love’s existence could be two people hand in hand, living in their own small world without any divine intervention—surely a sweet existence. However, the body is not eternal; both ‘existence’ and consciousness fade and vanish. It is sensitivity that may light this reality on fire. And whether noble or impoverished, a couple in love eventually becomes ‘a story from long ago’. If, in realizing their disappearance, the couple sleeps in a ‘kingdom’, would that not equate to an eternity with God? It seems this was even the girl’s wish.

In the realm of literature, there resides a soul of a microcosm. Even for Catholics, the words of their prayers are repeated together with the remnants of souls left behind.

Because it has been recited by so many, it has become a prayer returning to God.

*Annabel Lee is said to have been modelled on his first wife, Virginia, who is the most likely candidate, but The actual model is not certain, as it was often sad for Poe to meet and part with women.

*There was a story that the story of the sailor and the girl was published in a newspaper during a competition in London, but no reliable source has now been found.
Similarly, we asked if Virginia was mentally handicapped, but could not find a reliable source.

*Balthasar’s theology attributes obedience to Christ to the authority of God manifested in the claims of Jesus.
Claim – poverty – expropriation – obedience to the cross Claim – poverty – ‘expropriation’ – obedience to the cross is the axis of his theology.

＊Parable of the Talantons: Matthew 25:14-29.

Japanese

コラム

Annabel Lee　by. Edger Allan Poe

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 wingèd 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 kinsmen 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 her sepulchre there by the sea—

   In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Our father

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be

thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,

on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our

daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we

forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us

not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.