The Poe poem that begins “It was many and many a year ago” is “Annabel Lee.”
The opening places the reader in a fairy-tale-like “kingdom by the sea,” where the speaker remembers falling in love with Annabel Lee when they were young. He insists that their love was so powerful that angels envied it and caused her death. Even after she dies, the speaker believes their souls remain united and imagines sleeping beside her tomb each night.
“Annabel Lee” was written in 1849 and published shortly after Poe’s death that same year. It was his last complete poem. Readers often connect the title character with Poe’s wife, Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe, who died in 1847, but the poem’s exact inspiration remains uncertain. Other proposed inspirations include Frances Sargent Osgood and other women in Poe’s life.
The poem is often compared with “The Raven” because both address grief and lost love. Unlike “The Raven,” however, “Annabel Lee” imagines that love survives death rather than ending in permanent separation.