Poem Analysis for Christina Rossetti’s Echo
Themes:
Loss
Memory
Lover
Heaven
Pretty language
Longing
Summary:
This poem discusses a lover who has passed, yet the persona is still present on
Earth. She reflects on memories of the lover, yet whilst she realises, he is in
“paradise” and thus unreachable, there is this sense he breaks the boundary of the
living and the dead, wishing him to come back in “dreams”.
Structure:
Ostensibly the structure is tight, 3 stanzas of equal length, yet this is subverted by
the free-flowing lines- perhaps to represent the persona knows her lover has gone,
yet the emotions are still pouring out the persona, uncontrollable, like the lines.
Furthermore, the phrases “come to me”, “come” and “come back” are used multiple
times, often foregrounded to the start of the line, to demonstrate how desperate the
persona is to re-join her lover. Crucially, unlike many of Rossetti’s poems, she does
not want to enter the afterlife, yet wants her lover to come back to earth, in her
dreams as she knows he can no longer exist. This is much dissimilar to her later
poetry where she becomes increasingly devotional and desires to be with God.
More A* analysis on page 2!
Imagery:
The poem begins with an anaphoric longing “come to me... come to me in the
speaking silence of a dream”. This repetition suggests a desperation for the lover to
come back into the speaker's life, yet there is also this recognition of the difference
Themes:
Loss
Memory
Lover
Heaven
Pretty language
Longing
Summary:
This poem discusses a lover who has passed, yet the persona is still present on
Earth. She reflects on memories of the lover, yet whilst she realises, he is in
“paradise” and thus unreachable, there is this sense he breaks the boundary of the
living and the dead, wishing him to come back in “dreams”.
Structure:
Ostensibly the structure is tight, 3 stanzas of equal length, yet this is subverted by
the free-flowing lines- perhaps to represent the persona knows her lover has gone,
yet the emotions are still pouring out the persona, uncontrollable, like the lines.
Furthermore, the phrases “come to me”, “come” and “come back” are used multiple
times, often foregrounded to the start of the line, to demonstrate how desperate the
persona is to re-join her lover. Crucially, unlike many of Rossetti’s poems, she does
not want to enter the afterlife, yet wants her lover to come back to earth, in her
dreams as she knows he can no longer exist. This is much dissimilar to her later
poetry where she becomes increasingly devotional and desires to be with God.
More A* analysis on page 2!
Imagery:
The poem begins with an anaphoric longing “come to me... come to me in the
speaking silence of a dream”. This repetition suggests a desperation for the lover to
come back into the speaker's life, yet there is also this recognition of the difference
