Echo By Henriqueta Lisboa Ashley

“Echo” by Henriqueta Lisboa is a poem that allows the reader to try to understand its meaning and structure by using the following components; experience, strategy, meter, tone, unity, commonplace, and evaluation. If the reader does not acknowledge any of these components, then they would just read the poem thinking it was just about birds making loud noises. However, the poem is much more than birds making “A great uproar” (Lisboa 126). When reading “Echo”, it makes the reader think about his experiences and feelings about what he is reading. This is called the reader’s experience; this is the first thing that allows the reader to try to figure out the meaning of the poem. When reading the poem, one wonders why the parrots are letting out

(Lisboa 126)

The patter of the poem is an unstressed syllable then a stressed syllable and an unstressed syllable at the end of the foot. The tone of “Echo” is hectic and eerie. For example, the reader does not fully know what is attacking the parrots. What the reader does know is that there is something trying to hurt the parrots with bullets. “From all sides / strafing space” (Lisboan 126). It also has a hectic tone because the parrots are making loud almost screaming noises. “steely screams rained / and rained down” (Lisboan 126). The speaker is trying to tell the reader that the parrots are panicking when the speaker says “scampering down” (Lisboan 126). There is a sense of unity in “Echo” because there is repetition of words and thought throughout the poem. For instance, the word “scream” is used in every stanza except in the last stanza of the poem. In all four out of five stanzas of the poem, the word “scream” is used to convey a sense of commotion and jeopardy. “Very piercing screams!” (Lisboa 126). Also the thought of danger is repeated throughout the poem. For example, “From all sides / strafing space” (Lisboa 126), is an example of this repetition danger. It shows how the parrots are being shot at by a