Echo
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 brightAs sunlight on a stream;Come back in tears,O memory, hope, love of finished years.
Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;Where thirsting longing eyesWatch the slow doorThat opening, letting in, lets out no more.
Yet come to me in dreams, that I may liveMy very life again though cold in death:Come back to me in dreams, that I may givePulse for pulse, breath for breath:Speak low, lean low,As long ago, my love, how long ago!
Words in this poem
- wakening n.
- The act of one who wakens; esp., the act of ceasing to sleep; an awakening.
- brimfull a.
- Full to the brim; completely full; ready to overflow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Echo is in the public domain. This text is taken from Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #16950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Christina Rossetti, Echo, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/echo.html, id L04255.
Form and metre
Echo is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 28% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCC nightA · dreamB · brightA · streamB · tearsC · yearsC
- 2 A-A-BB sweetA · paradise · meetA · eyes · doorB · moreB
- 3 ABABCC liveA · deathB · giveA · breathB · lowC · agoC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Come to me in the silence of the night; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Come in the speaking silence of a dream; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| As sunlight on a stream; | 6 | ·/···· |
| Come back in tears, | 4 | ···· |
| O memory, hope, love of finished years. | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Whose wakening should have been in Paradise, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Where thirsting longing eyes | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Watch the slow door | 4 | ···· |
| That opening, letting in, lets out no more. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live | 10 | ·········· |
| My very life again though cold in death: | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Come back to me in dreams, that I may give | 10 | ·········· |
| Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: | 6 | ······ |
| Speak low, lean low, | 4 | ···· |
| As long ago, my love, how long ago! | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.