The Use Of Mood In Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven

Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, “The Raven” uses poetic devices to create the mood through the use of language, rhyme and repetition, alliteration, as well as through the speaker’s despair.
Edgar Allen Poe’s choice of words in his poem “The Raven” create a depressed or forlorn mood. We are shown this in the opening lines of the poem. “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, over many quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-while I nodded nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping.” Through these lines we are thrown into an atmosphere that is full of grief, hopelessness, and alienation. His choice of the words alone gives us the feeling of gloom. Other words such as “deep into the darkness” and “nevermore” are used to create a feeling of silence and solitude all emphasizing the mood of the poem.

Rhyme and repetition is also used throughout the poem to help create the mood.

Poe used the rhyme scheme of a, b, a, b, c, c in order to give it a musical quality that creates a lot of emotion in the reader. The use of rhyme can be seen in the quote mentioned in the previous paragraph through the words dreary and weary, and napping and tapping. Through these rhyming words we can tell that the narrator is exhausted and would like to retreat from his thoughts by napping, but something is keeping him from doing so. The use of repetition is also used to emphasize the mood and create the tone of the poem. By repeating “nevermore” the feeling of sadness, grief, hopelessness, and despair are shown and felt by the reader throughout the entire

poem.
Alliteration is another poetic device used by Poe in “The Raven”. Through alliteration the reader is allowed to transport themselves into the narrator’s environment. An example of alliteration is “Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before.” The repetition of the D sound keeps the reader reading in order to be seized by the narrator’s misfortune. The use of alliteration keeps the reader engaged, anxious and very eager to get to the end of the poem to find out the source of the “tapping, tapping”.
The mood of “The Raven” is also created by the speaker’s despair. The speaker or narrator is mourning the loss of his love, Lenore who was “the rare and radiant maiden”. The narrator is very depressed and sad he has been cooped up in his dark, gloomy home determined to torment himself with excessive grief as he dwells on his “lost Lenore”. He uses the Raven as a symbol of sadness to show that he will never be able to enjoy life again. We are shown this through the words, “And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted-nevermore!”. These words also imply that there is no escaping unhappiness. Despair and grief that strong can only be cured by death.
Many poetic devices were used in Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Raven”. Through these devices the mood of the poem was created. Poe used the use of language, rhyme and repetition, alliteration, the speaker’s despair and other devices to assist him in creating the mood of the poem.