Echo

Themes/description of the poem

• Echo is an introspective poem through which the concept of an echo is a recurring motif, utilised by Rossetti as an exploration of the lingering effects of lost love. 

• Profound exploration of existential longing 

Structure

• Rhyme scheme acting like a repeating echo. An echo as a remnant, something intangible that does not last forever 

• Iambic pentameter rhythm mimics a heartbeat, thus establishing a personal and intimate tone

• Rossetti varies the meter and syllable count of each line, allowing the poem to establish a mournful and longing tone through long-stressed syllables/assonance (come to me in the silence of the night). These inconsistencies reflect the arc of feeling – passion, longing, sadness and desire – that the narrator is experiencing. 

• Rossetti is not the only poet to take an interest in echo as a poetic concept. In fact, ‘Echo Verse’ was a particular style of writing used in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, where as a general convention repetition at the end of a line imitates an echo. 

Context

• The Pre-Raphaelite Movement, which emerged in the mid-19^th century, was a revolutionary artistic and literary movement that sought to challenge the conventions of the Victorian era. This movement sought challenge conventions of the Victorian era by capturing intensity of emotions and embracing the spiritual depth of their subjects - led by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina’s brother. Christina Rossetti’s poetry reflects these Pre-Raphaelite sensibilities, and ‘Echo’ is a prime example of this, through its exploration of love, loss, and a longing for deeper connection 

• (Echo and Narcissus Greek mythology story) Echo is a mountain nymph cursed to only repeat the words of others. Echo falls in love with Narcissus but is unable to express this, beginning to wither away until only her voice remains (similar to Rossetti’s narrator who feels like she has nothing left to live for without her lover). Between the two texts, there is a thematic link through lack of communication with the person that they love. Thematic link between longing and absence of Echo for Narcissus, and Rossetti’s speaker’s mourning the separation with her lover, desiring to be reunited in dreams.  

‘Come’

• Anaphora of ‘come’ at the beginning of lines acts almost like a recurring echo, exploring an incessant wave of urgent longing, and the persona’s attempts to summon memories of her past love again 

• Use of imperatives to show a command or plea, the persona has a deep desire or desperation for this lover to return 

‘Speaking silence’ 

• ‘Speaking’ and ‘silence’ are oxymoronic, symbolising how this dream is impossible and intangible for the persona. The tragic unattainability of the persona and her lover being reunited in life is a dark undercurrent to the poem

• Sibilance of ‘speaking silence’ gives the first stanza a sense of euphony (musicality), exposing how the persona soothes her loss through this recurring dream. Rosetti’s use of sibilance and ‘s’ consonants here also has the effect of mimicking a whisper – a quiet and intimate message shared between two people 

‘How sweet, too sweet, too bittersweet’ 

• Despite the positive imagery associated with ‘sweet’, the tone is very sombre

• This is due to the cumulative effect of ‘sweet’, where it becomes progressively more uncomfortable as it is repeated as an epistrophe (repetition of the same word at the end of each clause) 

• By repeatedly calling upon this dream, the speaker finds herself further away from the moment in which that memory was created, each remembrance of this a degradation 

‘Should have been in Paradise’ ‘slow door’

• Allusion to a biblical heaven or afterlife. This links to how Christian piety was the norm of everyday life during the Victorian era 

• Modal verb ‘should’ suggests that she wishes to join her lover in this afterlife 

• Subversion of typically positive connotations of ‘paradise’ with the fact that these people that appear unfulfilled (‘thirsting’ ‘longing’) 

• The slow time is the time it takes to let into paradise those that are still on Earth. Rossetti imagines the souls in paradise yearning for a reunion with the people they have left behind on Earth 

‘Thirsting longing eyes’  

• Verb ‘thirsting’ suggests a deep desire, but could also have sexual undertones. The use of the present tense here emphasises a continuation of this desire

• ‘Longing eyes’, unfulfilled, eyes as the window to the soul 

• Here, Rossetti explores a Romanticised writing style that focusses on deep emotion rather than physical description 

‘Yet come to me in dreams’ 

• ‘yet’ acts as a volta in the poem 

• Disturbing and tragic thought, the speaker is convinced life has nothing more to offer her, and instead wishes to dream about these reflections of her late lover 

• Juxtaposition of longing and the impermanence of dreams adds depth to the poem, highlighting the bittersweet nature of love and the human experience 

‘Pulse for pulse, breath for breath’ ‘though cold in death’ 

• The matching and diacope of ‘pulse’ for ‘pulse’ and ‘breath’ for ‘breath’ seems to have an erotic overtone, where the consonance of words creates a phonological effect that seems breathless and intimate   

• Combining of their ‘pulse’ and ‘breath’ could represents union or emotional connection. This merging of one being spiritually, or the physical joining in sexual intercourse 

• The rhythm of the line seems assured and steady, utilising iambic pentameter to mimic a heartbeat. Focus on the body  

• This becomes a dark Gothic rewriting of the kind of selfless love explored in Remember. The persona here is draining out her life, her pulse, her breath to reanimate her dead lover. The focus on vitality ‘pulse’ and ‘breath’ starkly contrasts the death of the partner. The speaker would trade her life for this, paying out in an economy of remembrance every waking moment 

‘Speak low, lean low’

• Alliterative ‘l’ sound and diacope of ‘low’ 

• The use of asyndeton and lack of connectives builds the tension of the speaker, combined with the short syntax and repetition, becomes breathless and perhaps erotically charged 

‘Come to me in the silence of the night’ ‘come to me in dreams’ 

• Repetition of ‘come to me in dreams’ acts like a refrain to the opening line, almost like an echo or structural deja vu  

• Persona is trapped within the echo of their partner’s memories, continuously returning to them  

• Clinging onto these dreams may be the only way to relive this youth and vitality associated with the lover ‘bright’ eyes’ ‘soft rounded cheeks’. Their love seemed vibrant and passionate, focussing on strong details about the individual noticed by the persona 

‘As long ago, my love, how long ago.’ 

• The effect of ending on the temporal marker ‘long ago’ explores the persona’s inability to let go of this memory of their partner 

• Acts as an echo or a cycle to which the speaker will inevitably not escape from – the use of ‘long’ emphasises that this haunting has continued for a long time 

• Just as her ‘love’ remains trapped syntactically, sandwiched between two separate ‘long ago’s’, so does Rossetti’s speaker remain trapped in an echo of the past, her life a prison whose walls are guarded by memories.