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Summary Of An Echo Sonnet To An Empty Page By Robert Peck

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In the poem “An Echo Sonnet: To an Empty Page,” Robert Peck utilizes a narrator and his alter ego who exchange questions and answers to subsequently reveal the poets prospects and attitudes towards life. “The voice” which is the narrator is a timorous man who is afraid of truly living and because he is afraid of the inevitability of the consequences of his mortality. The “echo” is the alter ego which answers the voice’s questions. The alter ego drives the narrator to view life differently. Peck has skillfully written this poem to exemplify a traditional Shakespearean sonnet and an addition of the echo to communicate a more direct message to the reader. Literary techniques such as symbols, juxtaposition, and imagery add meaning to the poem as …show more content…

The voice can be seen as a representation of people or their fears and insecurity about what is coming later in life. With the voice expressing its concerns the reader becomes more attached to the poem. Peck provides an immediate answer to the voices questions with the one word addendum from the echo. The reader can better remember and understand the poets answer to life with the echo being the last word of each line. This also adds more rhythm to the poem. The first quatrain assesses general questions about starting life out of a blank page. As the name suggests it is an echo that will provide answers to “an empty page.” The empty page is a metaphor for the voice. The voice will ask questions that require specific answers, usually starting off with “how, who, where, or what.” The one word answers from the echo impact the voice greatly. An example would be when the echo answers “start” to the voices first question. This emphasizes that the most important thing for the voice to do is simply take the first step and begin. The echo answers with “grief” to the juxtaposition of joy and grief, which in turn makes the readers see the echo’s sincerity. The echo was not made to comfort the voice but instead give answers. The echo also adds that art and “leaf” can offer some “consolation” and “relief” for the

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