Pleasing Terrors

Episode 51: The Unfortunate Pirate For over a century, "Annabel Lee" has been read as Edgar Allan Poe's final love poem—a haunting elegy to his child bride Virginia, written months before his death. But what if we've been wrong about the poem's true subject all along? In this episode, Mike follows a trail of evidence from a forgotten 1827 tale about a murderous pirate to the windswept shores of Sullivan's Island, where Poe was stationed as a young soldier. Along the way, he uncovers a family accusation that pursued Poe his entire life, a poem he was forced to burn, and the testimony of a woman who nursed him through his darkest hours. What emerges is a radical reinterpretation of America's most famous poem of loss—and a story about what it means to defend someone you love when the whole world has turned against them. The grave of Annabel Lee has finally been found. It was never where anyone thought to look.   Sources Referenced in Episode 51: The Unfortunate Pirate Primary Sources & Archival Materials Ell