Echo Flashcards
Come
‘Come…Where’
In Echo, the use of the word ‘come’ as an anaphora conveys a sense of suppressed passion with its repeated stress. In addition, the word ‘where’ is repeated in the second verse to convey the sense of loss and bewilderment felt by the speaker. The repetition mimics the concept of echoes: the words that are echoed convey the wishes of the speaker, which she expresses and then allows to come back to herself, attempting to re-create the feeling she had when her lover was beside her. However, the repetition also portrays an impatient speaker, whose constant attempt to cling on to the past is futile: the words bounce back to the speaker since there is no longer anyone to hear them.
Eyes
‘eyes as bright as sunlight on a stream; come back to me in tears….thirsty longing eyes’.
Rossetti’s lexical choices to symbolism vision highlight the speaker’s desperation. Youthfulness is indicated through accurate vision, and the concept of reflection on a stream creates a visual echo to demonstrate the speaker’s need for the past. Yet, there is a painful aspect to this, ‘tears’, and ‘longing’ express the despair and sadness - what is to be seen may not be what the speaker desires.
Sweet
‘Come in the speaking silence of a dream’
‘O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet’
The use of oxymoron is employed to express uncertainty: the speaker asks that the lover would come in the ‘speaking silence’ of a dream, the sibilance indicating deceptiveness and confusion, yet the dream is described as ‘how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet’, suggesting a conflict in feelings. The internal repetition and alliteration used throughout reinforce the intensity of the speaker’s feelings, conveying a hushed and reflective tone.
Breath
‘Pulse for pulse, breath for breath’
This uncertainty, and thoughtful tone is broken by the plosive sounds, conveying passion and energy, with the strong beat reflecting the breathing that the speaker wishes she could hear from the lover. By having the stress fall on the repeated consonants ‘p’ and ‘b’, Rossetti imitates the sharpness of an intake of breath and thus highlights the sense of urgency that the speaker feels. The emphasis on ‘pulse’ and ‘breath’ also recalls the living, not the dead. - it appears that the narrator’s breathing, her life, depends on her lover.
Rhyme and Meter
As the regular ababcc rhyme scheme in each verse reflects the movement of the speaker’s feelings and change. By using rhyme to combine some words of opposite meanings, such as ‘night’ and ‘bright’ and ‘death’ and ‘breath’, Rossetti draws attention to the instability of the boundary between life and death upon which her speaker is focused. The lyric form of the poem, with it’s short length means that speaker often has to leave much unsaid, and concentrate on emotions rather than logic. The variations in meter throughout Echo reflect the emotional changes that the speaker experiences as she contemplates the loss of her lover. The opening trochees in the first three lines with the phrases ‘Come to’, ‘Come in’ and ‘Come with’, convey the passion and urgency of the poetic voice.
