“An Echo Sonnet” by Robert Peck

The poem “An Echo Sonnet” by Robert Peck is characterized by two discrete speeches, that of the “Voice” and the “Echo”. While the Speaker’s “Voice” poses direct thoughts, the “Echo” seems to work as the force behind the actual “Voice”. Overall the poem offers multiple uses of literary techniques such as imagery, symbolism, rhetorical question, and metaphor to convey its overall ideas.

The first quatrain consists solely of rhetorical questions. The Voice displays a sense of confusion and hesitation as it contemplates starting life over. The Echo in this quatrain serves as a means of symbolism in that it reemphasizes only the meaningful parts of the statements that the Voice makes. Through this means, the Echo also seems to answer the rhetorical questions being presented. The first question also seems to set the melancholy, and depressing tone of the poem through words such as “emptiness” and “grief”.

The second quatrain incorporates more imagery as the leaf is described. The leaf serves to be a symbol for all of nature in general, which seems to bring the Voice comfort. Still a pessimistic tone is felt through the Voice’s rhetorical contemplation about death being the “enemy”. The Echo in this case seems to reinforce the fact that death is in fact not the enemy. Death actually becomes the metaphor for being an outlet of escape and ease. Therefore the Echo symbolizes the voice of reason in helping the Voice realize that the real enemy is actually is the Voice itself and the negative energy it brings out.

The third quatrain offers a turn in the poem. Peck makes further use of rhetorical questions which become geared towards the idea of giving in to death. The “leap” as suggested by the Echo is a symbol Peck uses to demonstrate a chance one must take into the unknown realm of death. A leap is also a metaphor for the intangible future that awaits us all. Consequently the Echo could be viewed as a symbol of contradiction in that despite the fact that it tempts the Voice towards death, it will still miss the Voice’s existence after its demise. The final couplet however, seems to affirm that the Voice has indeed succumbed to death, at the hand of the influential Echo. Thus the Echo becomes the metaphor for our unconscious that has the power to singlehandedly dictate all of humanity.