For this poem - my page is a bomb explosion of annotations; with shrapnel of oxymorons and content smeared on the page - instead of writing it in CATSDRIFT form i'll write it stanza by stanza, to make my head hurt less.
GENERAL CONTENT & RHYTHM & STRUCTURE & TONE:
-One interpretation could be that someone (perhaps a lover) has died and the narrator is begging them to come back/desperate for them.
-Another is that the narrator is dead.
-However the ambiguity of the poem could mean that nobody is dead, all we know is that someone is yearning desperately for someone else.
-Lyric poem
- TONE: desperate, nostalgic, bitter-sweet, grief-stricken, lamenting, mournful, longing, unfulfilled desire, haunting, sinister.
- The structure/form also reinforces the idea of echoes as the lines go in and out.
- The metre is relatively complex, most lines are iambic pentameter but when you look at the first line for example it's trochaic pentameter and then the 4th and 5th lines deviate from the regular pattern which are dimeter (NOT SURE ABOUT THIS, WILL CHECK).
TITLE & STANZA ONE:
-TITLE: ambiguous noun, refers to both the form and the content of the poem. The poem is about something coming back to the narrator like an echo. But also is a reference to Greek mythology's nymph Echo who pines for Narcissus until only her voice remains.
- Repetition is a common technique throughout the poem but predominantly in stanza one: 'Come to... Come in... Come with... Come back' this conveys the narrator's desperation. The similarity between the lines can also be seen as parallelism.
- Sibilance also features prominently in this stanza: 'speaking silence' which is also an oxymoron, showing that the two characters don't need words to talk to each other. 'cheeks and eyes as bright as sunlight on a stream' the reference to water (which is also natural imagery, figurative comparison to human physicality, which Rossetti uses a lot in her poetry which shows her influence from the Romantic poets) could also refer to the Greek mythology tale as Narcissus commits suicide due to his own reflection.
- This use of ancient techniques links with her using a lyric poem form which originally used to be sung in ancient traditions with a lyre, this is why she uses such strong rhyme and rhythm. She therefore uses 2 ancient forms for this poem.
- Speaking of rhyme, the rhyme scheme is ABABCC
- Archaic diction: 'O memory...' also memories are essentially echoes of the past. This last line: 'O memory, hope, love' is also a tripartite of abstract nouns which foregrounds echoes.
- 1st person voice.
- In terms of structure, this stanza (and the others) is one sentence which is achieved through the use of enjambment and colons + semi-colons (a complex syntax) which give the idea of caesuras and pauses.
-In this first stanza there are also several imperative sentences which give the effect of desperation as the narrator is ordering/begging/pleading her/his loved one to return, the mix of anger and anguish of grief.
- 'love of finished years' this shows the nostalgic tone
-'O memory' the O is an apostrophe which is typical of lyric poems.
STANZA TWO:
- Very religious, describes heaven but in a very ambiguous way - the narrator's attitudes to death and heaven or 'Paradise' are very unclear. The 'Slow door' could also be referring to heaven's gate. Also no humans are referred to, only 'souls' which is a very spiritual way of saying it. A big theme in this stanza is the conflict between religion and love, which Rossetti explores a lot in her poetry. This could be perhaps linked to Rossetti turning down/losing several marriage proposals due to religious differences.
- Again there's a lot of natural imagery, specifically water: 'brimful'
- This second stanza starts with another oxymoron: 'bitter sweet' which shows how loss skews our perception and memories.
- She is dreaming of them both meeting again in heaven
- But this idea of happiness is contrasted by the idea of the fact the the door 'lets out no more' perhaps to show how when one/if one of them has died with be trapped in heaven waiting for their lover. Again this emphasises the yearning.
- Again there is a lot of repetition in the first line with 'sweet' and despite this repetition the type of sweetness changes, this can be viewed as her convincing herself that he/she existed or that the desire/yearning is so profound it's a type of madness. It also once again shows echoes, echoes of words.
- Once again there's a lot of sibilance, a very vocal technique which could be because this was originally intended to be sang but also these sound patterns could also be referring to echoes again.
STANZA THREE:
- 'Cold in death' is a metaphor, we could infer that nobody is actually dead; but that the narrator's desperation for the other character is so profound it feels like a death.
- 'Pulse for pulse, breath for breath' these repetitions give the idea of a heart beat or breath beat.
-'Speak low, lean low' this imperative sentence has strong alliteration and assonance (which carry onto the final line) which convey the visual picture of the two characters being together again.
-'As long ago...' not only does this carry over the assonance, it also shows the ambiguity of time; we have no idea how long ago the narrator was separated from the (we assume) lover.
COMPARISONS TO OTHER ROSSETTI POEMS:
- With 'Remember' due to content and form, it's another lyric poem and are both about death.
- 'No, Thank You, John' due to similar syntax (both have a lot of colons and semi-colons).
- 'Shut out' due to the theme of desire and yearning and the 'door' symbol.
- 'Song' due to both death and love themes, but they are ironically different in their views; 'song' is about acceptance of death and asking the other character not to mourn them but 'echo' is about begging desperation. These are also both lyric poems.
