Echo - "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath..."

• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Assonance creates a lullaby-like rhythm, mimicking the gentle murmur of a dream or a whispered memory - This soft, flowing soundscape mirrors the tender emotional tone of the speaker’s yearning for a return to a lost intimacy - The assonance lulls both speaker and reader into a trance-like state, evoking the blurred boundaries between sleep, dream, and desire
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Assonance and the recurrence of similar vowel sounds enacts the very notion of an “echo” reinforcing the poem’s central conceit - These reverberating sounds mimic the repetitive, cyclical nature of memory and grief - constantly returning, reshaping, and fading - It’s as if the speaker’s voice is calling into the void, and only soft, vowel-heavy echoes return in reply
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Assonance stretches the line phonetically, slowing time as the speaker reaches toward a distant past - This soundscape mirrors the way memory distorts time, making the past feel simultaneously close and irretrievably far - The poem’s ending becomes suspended in a drawn-out, elegiac sound that refuses finality
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Assonance and the repeated vowel patterns mirror the cycle of grief - constant, recurring waves of remembrance - The assonance draws together disparate clauses with sonic unity, suggesting the speaker’s inability to separate present pain from past pleasure - This technique reflects how grief loops back on itself, with language serving as both a comfort and a trap
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Assonance in "lean low" not only creates a soft, mournful rhythm, but also alludes to the Greek myth of Narcissus and Echo - Narcissus, who leaned over a pool and fell fatally in love with his reflection, is paralleled by the speaker’s yearning for a vanished love, while Echo, cursed to only repeat what others say, is echoed in the poem’s repetitive, fading vowel sounds - Together, the mythological reference and sonic texture heighten the sense of futile desire and inescapable loss - where both the speaker and Echo are trapped in voiceless longing for what cannot be returned
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Syntactic, Declarative Parallelism mirrors the shared physical rhythms of lovers, reinforcing the corporeal intimacy the speaker mourns - The repetition creates a steady cadence, evoking the literal beat of a heart or the inhale and exhale of breath - This structural symmetry intensifies the emotional ache of the speaker, who longs to synchronise once again with the lost beloved
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Syntactic, Declarative Parallelism and by echoing the grammatical construction of each clause, Rossetti conveys the mutuality that once existed in the relationship - The speaker’s repetition of structure - “pulse for pulse, breath for breath” - suggests a desire for emotional equilibrium, to receive as much love as was once given - This desire for restoration reveals an underlying grief: that such balance is now impossible in death
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Syntactic, Declarative Parallelism gives the line a liturgical quality, almost like a prayer or incantation - This stylised invocation of the past turns memory into ritual, suggesting the speaker returns again and again to this moment in dream or grief - The structure, then, becomes a symbolic attempt to summon the beloved back from the dead through linguistic rhythm
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Syntactic, Declarative Parallelism reflects the compulsive nature of remembrance - how certain phrases, moments, or emotions are revisited cyclically in the mind - Each mirrored clause imitates the way grief repeats itself in waves, with no real progression or resolution - Rossetti thus crafts form as a reflection of emotional entrapment
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Syntactic, Declarative Parallelism and the echo-like parallelism of syntax mimics the mythological Echo, doomed to repeat the words of others - The speaker’s voice here seems both autonomous and passive, caught in a loop of repetition that symbolises both longing and helplessness - In this way, Rossetti’s syntactic choices subtly align the speaker with Echo herself - haunted, voiceless, and tragically bound to repetition
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Metaphorical Diacope symbolizes a resurrection of the speaker’s love, invoking the biblical image of God breathing life into Adam - This idea echoes Genesis 2:7, which says "then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" - The diacope structure, with its emphatic repetition, mirrors the cyclical nature of life and death, suggesting that the speaker’s love is not truly gone, but will return to her, reviving both her spirit and body - In this way, Rossetti evokes a sense of divine renewal, a metaphor for hope amidst despair
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Metaphorical Diacope mirrors the back-and-forth flow of love and intimacy in the relationship - This repetition suggests that true emotional connection is based on a reciprocal, equal exchange of affection, and that the speaker yearns for a return to such balance - The repeated phrasing emphasizes her intense desire to restore the harmonious connection that once existed
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Metaphorical Diacope could also be seen as symbolizing the eternal recurrence of longing and desire, a cyclical pattern that never truly ends - By repeating the phrasing “pulse for pulse, breath for breath,” Rossetti presents the speaker as trapped in a loop of memory and yearning - This endless repetition reinforces the idea of desire being perpetual, always returning to the same point of pain and longing
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Metaphorical Diacope also evokes the impersonal nature of Echo herself, the mythological figure cursed to endlessly repeat the final words of others - The speaker’s use of diacope emphasizes her own entrapment in a cycle of repeated longing, highlighting her inability to move forward or to speak with her own voice - Thus, the repetition symbolizes the passive, unyielding nature of desire, echoing the mythological figure’s futile existence
• In 'Echo', the quote "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: Speak low, lean low, as long ago, my love, how long ago", the use of Metaphorical Diacope also serves to intensify the speaker’s mourning by emphasizing the gap between the past and present - “As long ago, my love, how long ago” creates a sense of deep temporal separation, accentuating the emotional distance between the speaker and the beloved - This diacope, by reiterating the time elapsed, both grieves and memorializes the lost relationship, amplifying the pain of separation