Complete 3 page APA formatted essay: Perform a Close Reading of the Poem Narcissus and Echo, and Choose Specific Features of Its Language to Isolate and Analyze.Download file to see previous pages...

Complete 3 page APA formatted essay: Perform a Close Reading of the Poem Narcissus and Echo, and Choose Specific Features of Its Language to Isolate and Analyze.

As the essay stresses selfish, rather than hard-hearted, Narcissus has failed to notice Echo completely, though she dedicated her whole wasted life to him. Only on the brink of her final disappearance does Echo face a crisis of faith, and accuse him of being stone-hearted. Even the punctuation is carefully set up for this. The question mark on the end of the word ‘stone?’ is crucial. The echoes from Echo are fragmented to remain on the edges of Narcissus’s lines. the effect becomes subtle and subliminal.

This paper discusses that sound and timing are crucial to Chappell’s message of separation and despair. There should be a slight hesitant pause between each Narcissus line and its closing echoing refrain. Though the story and theme is an ancient one, told many times, and Narcissus has given his name to a psychiatric Freudian Complex, Chappell’s poem gives fresh life to the powerful and deceptively simple myth. The plight of Echo lends itself readily to an echo poem in more than just name. She is cut literally to the edges of her lover’s world, and her worth is effectively marginalized, while Narcissus takes the centre stage and the lion’s share of the text. It is the echoes, glimpsed only fleetingly that the reader finds more intriguing. The poet therefore ingeniously captures the sense of Echo’s lack of ability to communicate with Narcissus.