Echo

by Christina Rossetti

Prepared by
Viktoria Levenets
Why I have chosen the poem “Echo”?

After reading this poem for the first time, I have thought that it was a
poem about love with a romantic mood and that it would be easy to
analyze. While translating this piece of art, I’ve realized that it is not
as simple as it seemed. It is necessary to plunge into the world of
sadness and longing for a loved one.

Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope and love of finished years.
O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter-sweet,
Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brim-full of love abide and meet;
Where thirsting longing eyes
Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.
Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again though cold in death;
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago.
Прийди до мене в тиші ночі
Прийди у виразній тиші сну
Прийди із м’якими круглими щоками і очима такими
яскравими,
Як сонячне світло на струмку;
Повернись в сльозах
О, пам’ять, надія і любов закінчених років
О, сон солодкий, надто солодкий, аж приторно-
солодкий
Чиє пробудження повинне бути в Раю,
Де душі повні любові залишаються і зустрічаються;
Де спраглі жадаючі очі
Слідкують за неквапливими дверима
Які відчиняются, впускаючи, (і) більше не випускають.
Прийди до мене в снах, щоб я змогла прожити
Своє таке життя знову, хоч холодно у смерті;
Повернись до мене в снах, щоб я змогла дати
Пульсу биття, а диханню подих:
Говори тихо, схилися низько,
Як давно, моя любов, як колись.
 Analysis Why is the poem called
Echo?
Christina Rossetti's poem "Echo", in
Echo as we know it is the words
my opinion, is the address of a person
(sound) that come back to you. So
in love to his or her beloved, who has
here we see a person addressing a
died. Reading this poem you feel a sad
loved one who has already died, so
mood. This person in love asks his or
these words and requests to return
her beloved to return at least in a
are like an echo that will not be
dream, where they can meet again. In
heard and answered.
the poem you can even feel a plea for
the return of the time when lovers
were together.
The main theme

In my opinion, the main theme of this poem is longing.

Throughout the reading, we feel this sad mood. The
person asks the loved one to return, although he/she
understands that this is impossible because his/her beloved
is dead. Longing is expressed through the repeated call to
the beloved and language associated with desire.