In "The Raven," how does the speaker's state of mind change as the poem progresses and what is its cause?

In the
poem, the speaker moves from melancholy to outright despair. His initial sorrow looks to have
been caused by 's death; however, by the end of the poem, his unhappiness is caused by the
realization that his grief is eternal.

In the poem, the Raven's words
"Nevermore" is significant. Poe uses this repeated word to stress the irrevocable
power of death and its ability to overwhelm one's existence. Interestingly, Poe believed that
enduring melancholy was the highest form of human adulation and that sorrow for the death of a
beautiful woman was closely tied to beauty of expression.

In the early
stanzas, the speaker is dejected and weary. When he hears knocking, he tells himself not to hope
that it's anything more than a stranger seeking entrance to his chamber. The phrases
"nothing more" and "nevermore" stress the permanent nature of the speaker's
sorrow: his Lenore will never grace his presence again, and thus, his soul will never be lifted
from the depths of melancholy.

He prays desperately that nepenthe (a powerful
ancient anti-depressant) will help him forget Lenore, but the raven ominously pronounces that
forgetfulness will elude him: he will "nevermore" forget Lenore. He then pleads for
"balm in Gilead," but the unrepentant raven assures him that he will never know relief
from his melancholy. The speaker then tries a different tactic; he questions whether he will
ever hold the "sainted" Lenore in the presence of the angels. The raven pronounces
that he will "nevermore" know that joy. The despondent tone casts a mood of dark
resignation over the entire poem.

So, in the beginning of the poem, the
speaker is depressed. However, he still entertains a shred of hope in the deepest recesses of
his psyche. He imagines that there might be a hereafter, where he may be reunited with his love.
He even entertains the idea that God will relieve him of his unending, torturous grief. By the
end of the poem, however, the speaker becomes resigned to his inescapable fate. He realizes with
a pang that he will never be free from melancholy and that he is doomed to eternal
sorrow.

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