echo sonnet

In “An Echo Sonnet: To an Empty Page by Robert Pack, the speaker is in a deep internal struggle with himself. He is trying to overcome a loss that is causing his depression. He is speaking to his emotions, or the echo, with his rational mind, the voice, and in doing so he creates a battle between his voice and his emotions.

            In the first couple of lines the voice states, “How from emptiness can I make a start?” “And in starting, must I master joy or grief?” The echo replies, “Start” and “Grief” which means to imply that the only way to beat depression is to attack it by accepting grief. Grief is to not be just accepted, but utterly understood. What led up to this grief, and why does the speaker feel the grief he does? The answers will lead him to salvation. The speaker questions whether salvation or even happiness is achievable. The voice says, “I’d leap into the dark if dark were true.” “And in that night would you rejoice or weep?” The echo replies “True” and “Weep.” When someone succumbs to the darkness they cross the point of no return, in this case that point is suicide. The echo supports the speaker’s desire to commit suicide so that he can find happiness, and the echo weeping can suggest that the speaker half heartily takes his own life.

            “An Echo Sonnet: To an Empty Page” depicts the hardships a person will endure to find happiness. People achieve their goals by being supported and pushed by other people. The speaker is isolated and alone so he leans on himself for guidance. The sonnet suggests that surviving and getting through an injury of any kind, whether it is to the mind, body, or spirit is completely impossible.