“‘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 sepulcher there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.’
The first lines,” said I, “are well-fitting. For you are like to
the moon and stars, and they are like to you. You are with them
in the shadow-way. And if you were out by the sea in a gray stone
sepulcher I should stay there near you, in the night-tide and
the day-tide. You would be there--and my heart would set in your
direction still.”
“More than it had set before,” said my friend Annabel Lee. “For
everything escheats to the sea at last. Those persons,” said my
friend Annabel Lee, “who have measures of sorrow which can be joined
with the sea are the most fortunate persons of all. Those measures
of sorrow will serve them well and will stand them in good stead on
days when all other things desert them. If a measure of sorrow is
joined with the sea it belongs to the sea--and the sea is always
there.
“The sea,” said my friend Annabel Lee, “is like a letter from some
one whom you have written to after a long silence, who you thought
might be dead.
“The sea is the measure of sorrow, and the measure of sorrow is
the sea. Having once had a measure of sorrow joined with the sea,
your measure of sorrow will never be separated from the sea.
“The measure of sorrow will sink all of its woe deep into the sea,
and the sea will be of the same color with it. For a measure of
sorrow is sufficient to color a great sea.
“The sea will give to the measure of sorrow a bit of wild joy.
There is no joy in the world like that of the sea--for there is
enough in it to come out and touch all things in life, and life
itself. And the wild joy will stop short only of a scene of death.
If a life is joined with the sea, in spite of all the weariness,
all the anguish, all the heavy-days of unrest, and all the futile
struggling and wasting of nerves, there will yet be a wild joy in
it all, and thrill after thrill of triumph in extreme moments.
“Those measures of sorrow that are not joined with the sea must
do for themselves.
“And for these reasons, those persons who have measures of sorrow
that can be joined with the sea are the most fortunate persons of
all.”