The Echo in Penitence free essay sample

At the end of the poem the author hears an â€Å"echo. † What is this echo? The â€Å"echo† within the poem â€Å"Penitence† by John Burnside can be inturpreted many different ways depending on the perspective that you approach poem from. Some may look at the â€Å"echo† as simply the deer being reincarnated in his imagination. Others see the â€Å"echo† as the voices of those who have passed. Still many people look at the â€Å"echo† and think about the natural world around us. All of these ideas are correct, their really is no wrong answer, every person’s perspective on life is different. Some people think literally, some look at the world abstractly. Life is how you take and perceive it not how you make it. Many people look at the poem literally and just think of the â€Å"echo† as the dead dear. This is true if you read the poem as it is written. We will write a custom essay sample on The Echo in Penitence or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Yes, the gruesome memory of the deer is the echo if you don’t look beyond the original meaning. Almost any reader will pick up on this theme immediately, especially if the reader only casually reads the poem once. The more you dig into this poem and look at the author’s emotional experience, the more you realize this theme is only the surface of many other more personal and emotional themes. Upon further review many readers will start to look at the â€Å"echo† as the author trying to bring the deer back to life in his imagination. This theme is confirmed by looking at line 43 where John Burnside says â€Å"my own flesh in the body of the deer. † This points to the fact that Burnside is trying to bring the deer back to life by replacing the dead rotten flesh of the deer with his own, in a sense walking in the deer’s shoes. This is good strong evidence that Burnside is remorseful and often thinks about what the deer’s life would have been like if he had not killed the helpless creature. This theme is a very strong and justifiable theme present in â€Å"Penitence† but still does not relate this story with previous life experiences. A more abstract interpretation of the poem that does incorporate emotional experiences is that the â€Å"echo† is the voice of nature calling to Burnside. By Burnside hitting the deer with his car, he is now more sensitized to the world around him. By causing the death of an innocent member of nature, Burnside realizes just how precious life is and just how it should be appreciated. Perhaps up to this point in Burnside’s life he had never taken the time to observe the natural world around him. This â€Å"echo† appears to be Burnside going back to a life changing event that drastically affected him. He seems to emphasize words describing nature throughout the poem like: redwoods, deer, trees, leaves, moths, wind, river, and woods. Some may argue this him just describing the setting but the frequency makes it seem more important then just Burnside setting the stage. Jon Burnside’s poem â€Å"Penitence† and the â€Å"echo† in the poem can be interpreted in many different ways all of which are correct depending on the perspective of the reader. Some look at the poem literally and only interpret it in that way. Others look at the poem in a more emotional way relating the poem back to the life of Jon Burnside or their own. The meaning is all about the readers process of reasoning, no two people will see the â€Å"echo† in the poem in exactly the same way. The â€Å"echo† can be interpreted any way the reader wants to this is what makes the reader an individual not just a person.