Echo

By Daryl Hine

Echo that loved hid within a wood

Would to herself rehearse her weary woe:

O, she cried, and all the rest unsaid

Identical came back in sorry echo.

Echo for the fix that she was in

Invisible, distraught by mocking passion,

Passionate, ignored, as good as dumb,

Employed that O unchanged in repetition.

Shun love if you suspect that he shuns you,

Use with him no reproaches whatsoever.

Ever you knew, supposing him to know

No melody from which you might recover-

Cover your ears, dear Echo, do not hear.

Here is no supplication but your own,

Only your sighs return upon the air

Ere their music from the mouth be gone.