Reflection on Reciting a Poem In English Class

Annabel Lee

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 winged 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 kinsman 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 the sepulchre there by the sea,

In her tomb by the sounding sea. 

I suppose I was wiser this time and the poem I chose was a bit easier to remember. I also wisely chose a poem that has a story plot that I actually liked a lot. The rhyme of this poem and its repetition of "in this kingdom by the sea" really helped me with the memorizing. I was pretty nervous when I went up since I was still looking over my poem one last time right when Mr. Dahl was taking out the chopsticks. Unfortunately, I wasn't that prepared for my poem, but since I've been memorizing it a long time ago, it wasn't that hard for me to memorize it. I think I did quite reasonably well in the recital, though I could have of course done better if I have had finished that little last minute review. The main problems I had with the recital of this poem were the beginnings of paragraphs, which always introduce a new event of the story. But overall, I didn't make too many mistakes. Another bigger issues with the recital were near the end, since I'm not that familiar with the later part of the poem since there are less repetitions, but still really interesting.