An Echo Sonnet Summary

In “An Echo Sonnet” by Robert Pack, the speaker, who is trying to write, is thinking to himself with his internal voice. The echo repeats the ending word of each sentence, but also sometimes changes returns a word that sounds similar to the previous word. Although the echo seems to be only repeating the voice, it reveals the subconscious thoughts of the speaker by altering the words. Pack utilizes the call and response format and changing sounds of the echo to convey purpose of artists, who question the world. The second part of the title “To an Empty Page” sets up an image of a person ready to write or create something from scratch. The page is described as empty because artists need to create meaning out of emptiness. Already the title …show more content…
The addressing of the echo as “you” indicates that now the speaker is specifically addressing himself asking what he can do. When the speaker asks “are you glad that I must end in sleep?” the echo answers “Leap”. This means that the subconscious is telling the speaker to leap out and take action. The speaker also asks if he would “rejoice or weep” and the echo says “Weep”. The echo points that this process of questioning leads to struggle because leaping “into the dark” may not be the “true” action that the speaker wants to do. Then the speaker asks “what contradiction makes you take this view?” which is answered by the word “You”. This answer suggests that all the views are created by the speaker and it’s the speaker’s choice to choose which view to take. Then the speaker realizes that questioning himself can “lead me where I go”. And at the end when the speaker concludes that “whether happiness is there, you know”, the echo answers “No”. The echo ends with an answer that leads to uncertainty because the speaker cannot determine what is gonna happen in the future. But the echo’s answer “No”, which is the exact sound as “know” but with different meaning, also suggests that the speaker has the opportunity to choose how to get to the