My arbitrary of “Echo”: by Christina Rossetti
This particular poem in my opinion is one that is very pessimistic. It appears as if someone has become deceased, a family member, or perhaps someone’s significant other. My reasoning behind this is because in the beginning of the poem it says “Come back in tears O memory, hope and love of finished years.” This tells me two things. 1: the character that is deceased and the narrator of the poem knew each other very well. 2: It also reads; “Come to me in the silence of the night;” Just from reading the first passage it tells me that someone has passed away and someone misses that loved one and longs for their presence once more.
Let us take a look into the second passage of the poem. it starts out saying "O dream how sweet, too
sweet, too bitter sweet." It appears as if the narrator had a vivd dream about the loved one. The dream
was so real and life like that it was like a lucid dream. The next verse reads "Whose wakening should
have been in Paradise." At this point the narrarator seems to wish that he or she was with the deceased
loved one. Then follows; "Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet; Where thirsting longing eyes
watch the slow door that opening, letting in, lets out no more." This part of the passage tells me that the narrator is
spiritual and believes that the deceased one is in a better place. The narator mentions paradise which is "heaven,
the kingdom of heaven, the heavenly kingdom," https://www.google.com/#q=what+is+paradise%3F
"Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live My very life again tho' cold in death:" This starts the beginning of the
last passage. Once again the poem mentions that the narrator and the deceased reunite in a dream. It continues:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give Pulse for pulse, breath for breath." The narrator gives the
impression that if lives could be interchanged between he or she and the deceased then so it would be. The poem
does not elucidate how the deceased perished. Finishing off the poem is this: " Speak low, lean low, as long ago,
my love, how long ago." This tells me thatthe deceased has been gone for quite some time now. Now that the
narrator has awaken from the dream he or she summons the deceased to visit recurrently in their dreams.
