In Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven” the mental state of the speaker changes from nervous to paranoid to insane over the course of the poem through the use of diction and tone. At the start of the poem the speaker is calm and trying to convince himself nothing bad is happening, “Only this, and nothing more.” (6) The speaker's tone suggests he his nervous by him trying to calm himself by saying “nothing more” as if something bad was going to happen. This voice has a nervous sound to it that make the reader feel nervous with the speaker. The speaker moves on to being more paranoid by saying “bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door, with such a name as nevermore,” (53-54). The speaker’s diction implies he cannot tell if
