Which American poet wrote 'Annabel Lee'?

Edgar Allan Poe wrote the poem “Annabel Lee.”

Written in 1849, the poem tells of a narrator whose childhood love for Annabel Lee is so powerful that he believes jealous angels caused her death. Despite her burial, he insists that their souls remain united, preserving the poem’s themes of grief, memory, and love beyond the grave.

“Annabel Lee” was Poe’s last complete poem. Poe died in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, and the work was published shortly afterward. One early printing appeared in the New-York Daily Tribune on October 9, 1849; an authorized printing followed in Sartain’s Union Magazine in January 1850.

Readers often assume Annabel Lee was definitely Poe’s wife, Virginia Clemm Poe. Virginia is one plausible inspiration, but the evidence is not conclusive. Other candidates have been proposed, and some scholars believe the character was principally a literary creation. The poem’s repeated sounds, ballad-like rhythm, and “kingdom by the sea” setting are unmistakably characteristic of Poe’s musical, melancholy style.