Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary

that is a quote from the poem the raven by  Edgar Allan Poe

hope this helps

the present continuous is a verb tense which is mainly used to indicates that an action is in progress at the moment of speaking.  

it is formed using: person + verb to be (am/is/are) +verb + - ing form  

example: i am studying at this moment .

in addition, the present continuous is also used in order to express things that will or will not happen in the near future.

example: i am having dinner with some friends tonight.

the speaker sometimes   uses it   to express that an action is repeated and it causes irritation on the part of the speaker

example: my sister is constantly complaining about everything.

c: the reader is first introduced to the girl bragging about how great

an actor she is.

explanation:

the girl is boasting about how talented she is, but in reality she is not talented enough to gain a part. (this could also be