Paraphrase the eighth stanza of “The Raven” in your own words. How did paraphrasing it help you better understand the events tha
t the narrator is describing? Then the ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven, Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore— Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
Answer:In the eighth stanza of “The Raven,” the narrator of the poem gets distracted by the arrival of the raven. The narrator was feeling heartsick and depressed; however, the appearance of the raven cheers him up for a bit. He is amused by the bird’s “grave and stern decorum.” He starts talking to the raven using refined and aristocratic language. He tries to flatter the raven by saying that although the raven’s head (crest) is “shorn and shaven” like a powerless person, the bird is not at all weak and cowardly. He also mentions the Greek god of the underground, Pluto, to emphasize the darkness and mystery of the bird as well as the devilish night. Finally, he asks the raven his name, to which the bird replies, “Nevermore.”
When paraphrasing the stanza, it's important to read it multiple times. That can help you focus on each line and what it means. Reading to paraphrase also requires analyzing each word in the stanza carefully and look for any hidden meanings.
Then the black bird began to deceive my sadness by making me smile because he wore such a serious face, it is really a smile of almost fear. i said to him , "shocking, serious, and old ravrn wandering around the shore (or his house). Tell me what is pluto doing on the shore tonight? An the racen says to him "Nevermore".
