Final answer:
In the second stanza of 'The Raven,' the narrator is revealed to be up late because he is immersed in thoughts of his lost love, Lenore, emphasizing his state of longing and despair.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the second stanza of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, the narrator reveals why he is up late. The stanza plunges the reader into the narrator's sense of suspense and dread as he ponders in the silence and darkness, longing for his lost love, Lenore. The entire stanza builds up a picture of the narrator, lost in thought, his solitude disrupted only by the repeated whisper of the name 'Lenore' that becomes an echo in the quiet of his room.
'Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,' indicates the narrator's contemplative and fearful state as he peers into the darkness. 'And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!"' strongly suggests that he is preoccupied with thoughts of Lenore, which keeps him up late, hinting at the depth of his loss and the cause of his insomnia.