Analysis Of An Echo Sonnet To An Empty Page

Senioritis, the strange phenomenon in which time becomes as malleable as a Play-Doh fresh out of a can and time management becomes as rigid as butter accidentally left above a heated mini-oven. When seniors have this condition, they lose all sense of direction in life and wander aimlessly, perhaps holed up in their rooms playing Call of Duty on their PS5 with a bag of blue Takis by their side, completely unconcerned about the AP Literature essay formally due two months ago. Yet, even throughout this period of unrestrained rapture and questionable work ethic, a question nags at the back of every senior’s mind: so, what comes next? In his sonnet “An Echo Sonnet: To an Empty Page,” Robert Pack depicts a speaker who poses various questions about

Pack utilizes multiple literary devices and a modified Shakespearean sonnet structure to illustrate the speaker’s struggle between appreciating the serenity of death and accepting an unforeseeable future. More broadly, this poem serves as an existentialist commentary on how humans can make meaning out of present circumstances, even despite the chaotic nature of the future, the inevitable nature of death, and the ultimate futility of life. In the first two quatrains, Pack establishes the speaker’s confusion and effort to reconcile himself to the idea of death. He questions the importance of grief and joy, when there is nothing else to experience. This reflects what he imagines will follow after death–emptiness, with nothing to feel and nowhere to go. He struggles to find a solution that would bring him peace and comfort, a “consolation in the heart.” The use of the words “emptiness,” “grief,” and “cold” emphasizes the discomfort and hopelessness the speaker experiences as he ponders death and desperately searches for his next course of action. From the beginning, Pack establishes a dark tone to emphasize the grim yet inevitable reality

In the third quatrain, Pack makes the discussion more personal to the speaker through the introduction of second person pronouns, delving into his concerns. He questions, “are you glad that I must end in sleep?” The prompt response: “Leap.” For the first time in the poem, the speaker directly addresses the echo, as if he has recently become aware of the voice responding to his questions. Previously, he desperately searched for answers to scattered questions, but he can now truly undergo introspection, asking and answering focused questions about himself rather than aimless ones about the world. Moreover, the questions in the third quatrain appear more coherent than earlier ones, connecting logically to prior answers and interacting directly with the echo. At this point in the poem, Pack implies that the speaker’s primary struggle has not necessarily been one with the concept of death, but with the unknown, ungovernable, and mysterious future. The speaker claims that he would “leap into the dark if dark were true,” connecting directly to the answer to his previous question: “Leap.” He actively challenges the echo’s command, perhaps considering it a source of wisdom but not a perfect one, as one usually does in their internal monologues. The “dark” represents an unforeseeable future, suggesting that the echo encourages the speaker to rid