Echo

Question 1

Summarise ‘Echo’

Answer 1

Christina Rossetti’s “Echo” is a lyric poem exploring grief, memory, and the intense desire to reunite with a deceased lover
- The speaker longs for the departed to visit them in dreams, blurring the line between life and death to recapture past intimacy.

Question 2

What does the title of Echo reflect?

Answer 2

• Echo of dreams to be reunited of with her lover
• Echos of their life together in memories

Question 3

What poetic form is used in ‘Echo’?

Answer 3

• Lyric - quiet and isolated tone allowing for reflection and introspection of their deceased lover - remembering their time together and noting how they long to be reunited with them

Question 4

What Victorian context could ‘Echo’ be centred around?

Answer 4

• Encourages an afterlife in a society experiences a crisis in faith
• Could note on the roles of women - The speaker’s entrapment in memory and her inability to move forward reflect the restricted, often indoor, and domes tic lives of Victorian women by reflecting the idea that a women’s life was often intense, inward, and focused on relationships.