In the first few stanzas, the speaker in this poem seems like a man in love. As the poem progresses, however, we begin to question his sanity when he attributes his loved one's death to the jealousy of the angels in heaven who send the wind to kill her. These suspicions are confirmed when we discover at the end of the poem that he has laid down in the sepulchre with his dead bride. While his madness makes him an unreliable narrator, and we must question the accuracy of his details, another speaker would not be able to tell this tragic story with the same impact and emotion.