Echo Brief Questions
PremiumWho is the speaker calling in the poem?
Answer: The speaker is calling her lost beloved.
When does the speaker want the beloved to come?
Answer: In the silence of the night.
How else does she want the beloved to come?
Answer: In the “speaking silence” of a dream.
What physical features of the beloved does the speaker remember?
Answer: Soft, rounded cheeks and bright eyes.
What are the beloved’s eyes compared to?
Answer: Sunlight on a stream.
Why does the speaker mention tears?
Answer: Because remembering the beloved brings sadness.
What three words does the speaker use for the past?
Answer: Memory, hope, and love.
What makes the dream “too sweet”?
Answer: Seeing the beloved again.
Why is the dream also “bitter sweet”?
Answer: Because the beloved disappears when the dream ends.
What place is mentioned as an ideal place of reunion?
Answer: Paradise.
What happens in this “Paradise”?<
Answer: Loving souls stay together and meet again.
What do “longing eyes” do?
Answer: They watch a slow-opening door.
What is the “slow door”?
Answer: It is a symbol of death.
What does the door do?
Answer: It lets someone in but never lets them out again.
Why does the speaker want dreams to return?
Answer: So she can live again through the memory of love.
What does “pulse for pulse” mean?
Answer: Sharing the same closeness they once had.
What does “breath for breath” suggest?
Answer: The speaker wants to feel the beloved’s presence again.
How should the beloved speak in the dream?
Answer: Speak low and softly.
What does “lean low” show?
Answer: The beloved should come close to her as in the past.
What does the final line, “how long ago,” express?
Answer: It shows how many years have passed since the beloved died.
What is the main feeling in the poem?
Answer: Longing for lost love.
Why does the speaker depend on dreams?
Answer: Because dreams give her a moment of life and closeness.
What does the poem say about memory?
Answer: Memory keeps love alive but brings pain.
What emotion mixes with love in the poem?
Answer: Sadness and grief.
What is the overall mood of the poem?
Answer: Quiet, sad, emotional, and full of longing.