What is the speaker feeling and doing at the beginning of "The Raven"?

According to the various famous verses from the poem that,
to this day, many can say with their eyes
closed:

           Once upon a midnight
dreary

While I
pondered, weak and weary

Upon many and quaint a curious
volume of forgotten lore

and
then he moves on to say that, he was nodding and
napping.

Basically, the main character and narrator was
sitting by the fire in a dark Winter night, pondering in weakness and feeling
weary.

This, he is doing because he is in mourning of his
love, Lenore. Since he feels so lonely and sad and the night's weather is making things
apparently worse for his psyche, he resolves to simply stay inside, think about Lenore,
and allow nostalgia to take over his mind and heart.