When we refer to mood we are thinking of the overall
emotion produced by a work of literature. The mood of a text can normally be described
by one or two adjectives, such as "bittersweet" or "comic," and so it is important to
read the text you are studying and try to work out what mood the author is trying to
create.
In the ninth stanza of "The Raven," it appears that
the predominant mood is one of confused wonder. The stanza begins by the speaker
reporting how he "marvelled" at the raven and the way that it could pronounce the word
"Nevermore" so plainly. He muses on the fact that no other human will have had the same
experience of a raven sitting on the bust above his chamber door with the name of
"Nevermore":
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human
being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his
chamber door--
Thus it is
that the mood of this stanza alone seems to be one of wonder and confusion as the
speaker tries to work out what this strange apparition and its speech might mean for
him.
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