Annabel Lee is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe in which he tells the story of a young woman named Annabel Lee and his intense love for her. The poem is filled with imagery and symbolism, and one of the most prominent symbols in the poem is the idea of holes.
The first mention of holes in the poem occurs in the second stanza, where Poe writes, "the wind came out of the cloud by night, chilling and killing my Annabel Lee." Here, the holes in the cloud symbolize the way in which Annabel Lee's life was taken from her. The wind, which is associated with death and destruction, comes through these holes and takes Annabel Lee's life away.
In the following stanza, Poe writes about the sea, "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." The sea is often associated with mystery and the unknown, and in this case, it serves as a metaphor for death. The sepulchre, or tomb, by the sea is a hole in which Annabel Lee's body is laid to rest.
The final mention of holes in the poem occurs in the last stanza, where Poe writes, "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." Here, the holes under the sea symbolize the underworld, or the place where demons reside. This imagery serves to emphasize the intensity and depth of Poe's love for Annabel Lee, as even the forces of death and evil cannot separate them.
Overall, the theme of holes in Annabel Lee serves to emphasize the theme of death and the eternal nature of love. The holes in the cloud, the sepulchre by the sea, and the underworld under the sea all represent the various ways in which death can take someone away. However, Poe's love for Annabel Lee is so strong that it transcends even death, showing the power of love to endure beyond the boundaries of this world.