An Echo Sonnet- By: Robert Pack

The poem titled "To an Empty Page," by Robert Pack, is an echo sonnet, in which the speaker carries a conversation with himself (the voice) and the Echo (his conscious). In order to completely extract meaning from this poem, I did some research in regards to "Echo" and Greek mythology. Echo, a beautiful young girl lived in the woods, denied of the loved of any man or god due to the curse (or punishment) by Zeus's wife. The punishment was that she could only echo, or repeat the last words of others, she could never answer them.  Similar to the Echo is the speaker, who talks to nothing but a blank, empty page (a title reference) in order to extropolate on "nature's call," what I see as the essential theme of the poem. Starting from verse one, the word "empty" and it's forms are used repeatedly, including the title, hence the importance of emptiness lies in his ability to talk to his conscious without disruption from an outside force; in essence, he is talking to nature (himself). Notice how after each line, the echo repeats the last word of each sentence. Perhaps, this notion of the echo interfers with his stubbornness to think otherwise (in reference to line two). He questions whether he must master joy or grief, and answers grief as the echo's ability to repeat is constraint to the last word or a rhyme of it. Keeping this in mind, the pattern of a,b,a,b,cc,d,e,f,e,f,g,g, also known as a Shakesperian sonnet, plays a significant role in defining the meaning of poem. When analyzing this rhyme scheme, I noticed that every action is followed by some form of nature; for example, start-art and grief-leaf. Seen here is push from nature, or perhaps destiny that guides his actions. His start is based on nature's art, perhaps the abnormalities of it too. This abornormality is seen in  line when when he states "Leaf blooms, burns red fefore delighted eyes." It is bizzare how a leaf blooms (we do not know whether the blooming is pretty or wild), but we do know that after this leaf transforms and grows, it is immediately burned, but before "delgihted eyes." The connotation of eyes are awakening, life, passion, finding, and discovering, which is paradoxical in line 5 because instead of continuing to grow, it is burned, but they are delighted. This hints that nature's beauty, comes from the grief of our perceptions, that contribute to art. We can take this further and say that this art, fostered by nature's destruction is vital to "consolation in the heart" (line 3). Because nature's destruction is now framed as a usual for relief, It can be said that is starting form grief, in order to reach this state of happiness or joy- grief gives him joy, rather than the other way around.