At the beginning of the poem, the speaker is feeling weak and tired as he tries to read late at night:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,—
He’s reading to try to distract himself from thinking about his lost love Lenore:
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore,
When the speaker hears what he believes is tapping on his door, he is scared and anxious because he’s not expecting anyone so late at night, and he tries to calm himself by telling himself that it’s just a visitor:
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
"'Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door;
This it is and nothing more."
On finding no one at the door, he is surprised and seems to hope that the spirit of Lenore is visiting him. He whispers her name only to have it echoed back, which frightens him even more. He goes back into his room with his “soul burning,” when again he hears the tapping, but this time he thinks it’s coming from his window. He tries to calm down by telling himself that it’s just the wind:
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is and this mystery explore—
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;—
'Tis the wind and nothing more.
Thus, the speaker goes from feeling weary and depressed to feeling terrified and paranoid across the first few stanzas.
