Lyric Poem · Love
Echo
by Christina Rossetti · 1862
Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.
Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
Where thirsting longing eyes
Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.
Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again though cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago!
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Echo” by Christina Rossetti — quilloak.com/poems/echo
Quick facts
- Poem
- Echo
- Poet
- Christina Rossetti
- Published
- 1862
- Length
- 18 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Love, Grief, Dreams & Sleep
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 18 lines · 3 sestets
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Christina Rossetti1830–1894
- Source record
- WikisourceEcho by christina-rossetti, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1862
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 f62187eb401ae24b…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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