Read the first stanza of the poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. Which phrase helps create the gloomy tone of the poem? Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door— Only this and nothing more."