An Echo Sonnet Essay

An Echo Sonnet: To an Empty Page

        In “An Echo Sonnet: To an Empty Page” is a poem written by Robert Pack. A poem in which he use literary devices such as rhetorical questions and  the concept of an echo to express the narrator’s uncertainty and his beloved’s supposed answers. Through out the poem, the narrator asks questions to seemingly nothing and receives answers in the form of an echo. Although in reality it is only his own answers.

   

        In the poem, the narrator is going through some rough times perhaps sadness which has left an emptiness within him, and it is that hole that gives the opportunity for his irrational heart to resonate answers back to the minds questions. He wonders how he can start over, and if he does, whether he must “ master joy or grief”, to which he Echo replies with the latter. The narrator continues and asks “…where’s natural relief?” ere, the narrator wonders where he may find an escape from life, from the grief he was told to pursue. The leaves; leaves age beautifully and change into wondrous colors, making “ecstasy” of the dying process. He wonders, “Yet what’s the end of our life’s long disease?” If death is not, who is my enemy”, but then the echo calls itself the enemy. Though leaves age beautifully, people do not assimilates, aging , is an inescapable disease of life, not a pretty display.

        The concept of the narrator speaking to an empty page in unrealistic. Therefore, it must be that the empty page serves as a metaphor. The narrator is writing about his grief and misery on an empty page. He continues to ask rhetorical questions and the echoed responses are those he hear in his head. His usage of rhetorical questions and extended metaphor serve to convey the meaning of his poem. The narrator use of literary techniques greatly contributes to the overall meaning of the sonnet. It is evident that the narrator is confused through his incessant rhetorical questions throughout the entire sonnet. The narrators hesitation of starting life from nothing and his attempt to search for consolation is exhibited through his use of rhetorical and echoes.

         The narrator use of rhetorical questions express the speakers confused mental state by exposing the speaker’s true feelings about beginning his life and the adventure at comes along with it. Throughout the entire poem, the narrator continuously asks questions debating what makes life worth living. These rhetoric questions reveal to discover a more profound and relatable narrator. These unanswered questions leave the reader a duty to search for the answers. Making this poem more interesting and more particular of reading. 

             In the end, the narrator goes on to say that he would “leap into the dark, if dark were true,” which the Echo verifies is correct. This darkness is a symbol for death. The narrator is essentially considering suicide. The Echo tells him to “Go,” but the narrator is unsure. The poem end with the Echo confirming to him that there is no happiness in death. The poems literal end could possibly indicate how the narrator has stopped thinking and move into the darkness. The choice inside of the narrator, his hearts reverberating replies, becomes his enemy and drives him to end his life.