Echo By Christina Rossetti

Rossetti’s poems about death Think back to: “Song: When I am dead my dearest” “Remember” What do these poems suggest about Rossetti’s feelings about a)love b) death

Echo The poem “Echo” shares the same themes of love and death. Considering connotations of the title, what do you think the poem may focus on?

Repetition in the Poem The following words are repeated in the poem… Come x 5 Dream(s) x 4 Silence x 2 Pulse x 2 Breath x 2 Consider the connotations of these words. What further clues do they provide about the poem and the speaker?

What are your associations with the word ‘echo'? Read the Poem What are your associations with the word ‘echo'? Do you see these associations shared by the speaker of the poem? List any indications you can find that the person the speaker addresses is already dead.

Synopsis Rossetti composed Echo in 1854 and first published it in Goblin Market and Other Poems in 1862. Throughout the poem, the speaker (now metaphorically, if not actually, dead) is calling a lost love to come back to her in his/her dreams so as s/he may remember the times s/he once enjoyed. Although the term ‘echo' is not mentioned in the main body of the poem, the notion of an echoing voice is made apparent through various repetitions. So why do you think the poem is called “Echo”?

Lyric Poem A lyric poem is a short poem that is spoken by one speaker expressing his or her thoughts and feelings about a certain situation or person. The short length of the poem often means that the speaker has to leave much unsaid and concentrate on emotion rather than narrative. The poem is therefore more concerned with conveying feelings than with telling a story. It is often characterised with the directness and naturalness of expression.

Musical settings Often, lyric poems make allusion to their ancient roots by using musical techniques such as repetition and a steady beat. Echo has received several musical settings from the time of its publication. In a letter to her brother, Dante Gabriel, Rossetti voiced her excitement at hearing it put to music. The printed lyric Along with the increase in book and pamphlet production in the nineteenth-century, most Victorian lyrics were encountered as material objects and for the first time, most recipients were the silent readers of volumes of poetry. Awareness of the changing readership of poetry inevitably had an effect on the way in which it was written. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAJEHQLeF8k Discuss Can you identify any features of Echo that are timeless and relevant for the reader / listener of any era? Why do you think that the poem has been popular with those who wish to set Rossetti's works to music? How do the effects of listening to the poem differ from the effects of reading it silently?

Consider and discuss the following images in the poem… Eyes The Door Water Thirsting

Eyes The speaker asks that the lover comes back with ‘eyes as bright / As sunlight on a stream' (line 3). This image suggests both youthfulness and good, accurate vision. It also works to merge the beloved with the natural environment and convey ideas of reflection. As one's own reflection can be glimpsed in the light of a sunlit stream, the speaker suggests that it is his/her wish to catch a glimpse of his/her own image, as a kind of visual echo, in the eyes of the beloved. In the second verse, the speaker imagines that, in Paradise, souls watch those entering with ‘thirsting longing eyes' (line 10). Describing eyes as ‘thirsting' expresses the imagined need they have to catch a glimpse of a person they have missed.

The Door The speaker imagines that ‘in Paradise', all eyes are fixed on the ‘slow door' opening and letting in souls, which hints at the potential reunion of lovers. Several of Rossetti's devotional poems, such as Despised and Rejected, use the image of the door to depict the entrance to heaven. However, in Revelation, the image of heaven that is given is one of security, rest and peace. There is no mention of the longing of the souls that are inside for those they left behind to enter ‘the slow door'. Rather, it is described as a place where pain and tears are absent (Revelation 7: 17).

Water The stream - In addition to alluding to ideas of reflection, the description of the brightness of the lover's eyes as ‘sunlight on a stream' suggests tranquillity, peace and movement. Just as a stream glimmers in the sun and runs towards a river or the sea, so too, does the speaker wish that his/her eyes would gleam brightly and move towards her Tears - The speaker asks that his/her lover would come back to his/her ‘in tears'. As well as expressing sorrow, tears can express deep, heart-felt emotion. The hope that the lover would come in tears suggests anticipation that s/he would demonstrate his passion and love by reciprocating and sharing in the speaker's sorrow Brim-full - The speaker describes the souls in paradise as being ‘brim-full of love'. The word brim-full is usually associated with an overflow of water. By describing souls as overflowing with love, Rossetti may be drawing on the words that Jesus spoke to a Samaritan woman as she drew water from a well, declaring that he himself is the Water of Life. He told her that, whereas everyone who drinks regular water will inevitably be thirsty again: ‘Those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life'. John 4:14

Thirsting  The description of souls who are ‘brim-full of love' as they meet their loved ones stands in direct contrast to the description of those who, with ‘thirsting longing eyes', await a reunion with their beloved. Rather than resting in security, those who have thirsting eyes are portrayed as restless, their eyes constantly watching for the opening of the door. Whereas physical thirst makes a person long desperately for some refreshment, Echo suggests that emotional deprivation can be equally powerful and painful.

Consider the contrast between those who are ‘brim-full of love' and those who are ‘thirsting'. What makes the difference between the two states?

Themes Longing The tone is one of longing throughout. From the first repetition of the word ‘come' to the final expression of desire that the speaker can breathe life back into the beloved, the speaker's attention is focused solely on his/her love. Longing is expressed through the repeated call to the beloved and language associated with desire. Despite displacing this feeling onto souls in paradise, it seems that it is with the fulfilment of the speaker's own ‘thirsting longing eyes' that is of greatest concern. Echoes The title of the poem provides a key to understanding its repetitions and some of its ambiguities. Rather than another voice echoing back the love that is expressed, the speaker finds that it is only the echoes of his/her own voice that can be detected and reminders of the past, now ‘finished years' (line 6). The dim echoes of the lover have been lost. This reflects in part the classical myth about Echo. In addition to repeating words and exploring the concept of a ‘speaking silence' (line 2), it is helpful to look at this poem in comparison with Rossetti's other writings, noting the echoes that exist between them.

How would you characterise the tone of the poem? Investigating themes What evidence can you find to support the idea that the speaker's main concern is with the fulfilment of his/her desire? How would you characterise the tone of the poem? Look through the other poems included in Texts in Detail: The poetry of Christina Rossetti. What common themes can you find? How does Echo reflect some of these themes? How can an understanding of the use of an image in one poem contribute to the use of the image in another? Think about the symbolism of the door.

Language and Tone An uncertain voice By asking that memory, hope and love would come back to the speaker ‘in tears' (line 5), s/he expresses a wish that the past would return, however painful it may be. It therefore seems strange that, in the very next couple of lines there is disillusionment that, when a ‘sweet' dream was experienced, s/he didn't wake up in Paradise but in a world that is now cold and emotionless. In the final verse, the speaker articulates his/her uncertainty once again when s/he expresses a longing that the lover would continue to ‘come' back ‘in dreams' (line 13). This longing to have the lover back produces some complex emotions that cannot be dismissed, yet neither do they make any sense.

Oxymoron The use of oxymoron is one technique the poem employs to express uncertainty. For example: The speaker asks that the lover would come in the ‘speaking silence' (line 2) of a dream. The dream that is experienced is described as ‘too bitter sweet' (line 7) In the final verse, life and death are paired together as the speaker joins together his/her own life with the ‘death' of the lover – yet s/he is perhaps also dead.

Echoes and repetition Repetition is a key feature of Echo Echoes and repetition Repetition is a key feature of Echo. The structure reflects the movement involved in the creation of echoes, as a sound is emitted and then bounced back. The words that are echoed convey the wishes of the speaker, which s/he expresses and then allows to come back to him/herself, attempting to re-create the feeling s/he had when his/her lover was beside him/her. However, the repetition of the words in the first verse also conveys the impatience of the speaker and reinforces the fact that the lover will always remain in ‘silence', never actually able to ‘come back'. The words bounce back to the speaker since there is no longer anyone to hear them.

Internal repetition Internal repetition is the re-occurrence of words or sounds within a single line. This is a technique used throughout Echo. For instance, the word ‘sweet' is used three times on the seventh line to reinforce the intensity of the speaker's feelings. Similarly, internal repetition is used in the final three lines of the poem to emphasise the speaker's sense of giving life to her lover. Anaphora is a poetic term for another form of repetition. It is used to describe the emphasizing of words by their repetition at the beginnings of neighbouring clauses. In Echo, the use of the word ‘Come' in the first verse is the most striking instance of this, conveying 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.

Alliteration and sibilance The sibilance throughout the first verse conveys a hushed and reflective tone. The natural flow of the speaker's words is helped by the liquid W and L alliteration in the second and third stanzas. This is only broken by the plosive P and B sounds of l.15-17 (‘back', ‘breath', ‘pulse', ‘speak') which convey energy and urgency.

Assonance The visual and aural assonance of the ‘ea' image and sound creates the effect of an echo throughout the poem. Despite the fact that they do not all rhyme, the words: ‘speaking', ‘dream', ‘stream', ‘tears', ‘years', ‘death' and ‘breath' all share the same internal combination of vowels. The significance of their repetition is more apparent to the eye than to the ear. Nonetheless, by creating an allusion to the echo the speaker creates when she searches for her lost love, their repetition conveys a sense of sadness and melancholy. This is further emphasised by the frequent long O assonance in the last couple of lines in each stanza.

Structure and Versification Rhyme The regular ababcc rhyme scheme, used in each verse, reflects the movement of the speaker's feeling. The fact that none of the rhymes is carried over from one verse to the next contributes to this idea of movement 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.

Metre The variations in metre 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. In the final verse, the strong beat in the line ‘Pulse for pulse, breath for breath' (line 16) reflects the breathing that the speaker wishes s/he 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.

Visual impact The combination of long and short line lengths creates a visual wave-like effect on the page. This corresponds to the actions being described throughout the poem. For instance, in the second verse, the ‘slow door' is spoken of on the short, dimeter penultimate line before its opening is described in the next, tetrameter line. That the description of the opening of the door is accompanied by a longer line conveys the act of expansion and width that the speaker wishes to convey.

Investigating structure and versification Re-read the poem aloud and write down anything interesting you notice about the changes in rhythm How do these changes correspond to the changes in the tone of the speaker? How far do you think that the structure of the poem contributes to its overall meaning?

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