An Echo Sonnet: To an Empty Page

To an Empty Page a sonnet written by Robert Peck employs many literary techniques however the most prominent ones are the use of rhetorical questions and repetition of sound and diction through the echo. Peck uses these literary techniques to emphasize the Loneliness felt by the narrator. In fact the title itself, To an Empty Page, suggests that one is all alone in this poem.

The voice, or the main portion of the poem, encapsulates the speaker’s misery in a series of rhetorical questions. The purpose of that is to show the reader the pain and the hopelessness that the narrator is feeling.  The very act of asking rhetorical questions shows that the narrator is not expecting a response from anyone. However, at the end of each line, there is an echo that either repeats the very last word that was said or uses another word that is similar to how the last syllable in the last word sounded. The echo acts as a response to the question that the voice proposes. The fact that the echo is responding to the rhetorical question of the voice proves the loneliness of the narrator because the echo is actually just the voice itself. In other words, there is only one person speaking. The narrator is not expecting a response but when he does he starts to have a conversation with himself.

The use of these literary techniques enhanced the emotions felt by the narrator. They brought the emotions to life and allowed the reader to be absorbed into this bleak mindset of life. A depressing mood of loneliness was set originally however it showed the beauty of talking to oneself; that one must really come to grips with their own reality by themselves.