Trick of the Mind Edgar Allan Poe had a troubled childhood, and his life was full of unexpected deaths and sadness. His feelings of sorrow and despair are reflected in his poetry; he is most well-known for his depressing themes and horror stories. His poem “The Raven” does not stray from his usual style. In this poem, the speaker is tormented by a raven who comes to visit him for several nights. The existence of the raven or lack thereof is something Poe wants the reader to decide for himself. However, readers who analyze this poem and look more deeply into it should come to the same realization--the raven does not exist. Poe provides a significant amount of evidence that suggests the raven is only part of the speaker’s imagination. Poe presents evidentiary statements to suggest the raven was only a trick of the mind, but one of the biggest contributors to this inference is the setting and mood. Poe creates a depressing mood as he characterizes the scene, the speaker’s circumstances, and his resultant mental health. In “The Raven,” Poe begins by conveying that it was a dreary midnight (line 1) in the bleak December (line 9). Immediately his word choices create a somber, depressing image in the reader’s mind. He continues by saying that he is full of sorrow because the love of his life, Lenore, was nameless evermore in the world (line 11). The speaker is full of grief and misery over her loss and is surrounded by loneliness. Straight away, the reader can infer that the