“‘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 high-born kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulcher
In this kingdom by the sea.’
I imagine, times,” said I, “that a chill wind has sometime come
out of a cloud by night and gone over you. No high-born kinsman
comes to carry you away--but I shiver at the possibility. Will a
high-born kinsman come to carry you away--shall you be shut into
a gray stone sepulcher?”
“No kinsman, high-or low-born, is coming to carry me away,” said
my friend Annabel Lee. “Kinsmen do not carry away things that have
no intrinsic value.”
“No, I believe they don’t,” said I, and felt relieved.