Edgar Allan Poe utilizes diction, including connotation and denotation, and allusion in order to shift the central tension from melancholy, desperation, to indignance in the Raven. The author begins the poem by introducing the background information of the story, stating the midnight as “dreary” and his physical state as “weak and weary.” (Line 1) “Dreary” carries denotations of depression and sullenness, setting the mood for the rest of the poem and depicting a night that makes the narrator enervated and helpless. In this dreary night, the weak and weary narrator’s reading of a volume of forgotten lore can be interpreted figuratively as his suffering from melancholy and finding a way to end his misery over losing his lover Lenore. After the