Read this stanza from "The Raven." Then the ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, By the grave and stern decorum of th
e 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." In this stanza, the poet uses imagery that appeals to the reader’s senses of sight and sound.
smell and taste.
sight and touch.
sound and touch.
Indeed, the lexical field of this stanza is full of terms as ebony bird, grave and stern decorum of the countenance, thy crest be shorn and shaven (only through sight the narrator knows all these about the bird). Finally the word, “nevermore”, has a powerful sound effect, magnified by its rhyming repetition throughout the whole poem.
In “The Raven,” there is much that appeals to sight and sound. For instance, for sight, there is much described to give readers an excellent visual—<em>ebony bird</em>, <em>sad fancy into smiling</em>, <em>stern decorum</em>, <em>crest be shorn and shaven</em>. For sound we have the word "Nevermore” that follows the command (imperative statement), “Tell me what thy lordly name is….”
