To an Empty Page

Robert Pack’s To an Empty Page is his ode to a lost lover. He speaks to the empty page as if it is his beloved. Pack uses rhetorical questions and the concept of an echo to express the narrator’s uncertainty and his beloved’s supposed answers. Every time the narrator asks the “page” a question, it seems to answer. Because of the reality of the situation, it is unlikely that the page is responding to him. Therefore, the empty page must be a metaphor for the book that is life, and the echoes to the narrator’s questions are the responses of his lover.
In his use of rhetorical questions and echoic responses, Pack shows both the speaker’s and his lover’s points of view. When the narrator says, “And starting, must I master joy or grief?” and the echo is, “grief,” in line two, the reader can see that the speaker’s lost lover wants him to feel pain over his loss. The rest of the echoed responses are negative, supporting the idea that the speaker’s beloved wants him to painfully mourn their lost relationship.
The concept of the narrator speaking to an empty page is unrealistic. Therefore, it must be that the empty page serves as a metaphor for life as a book. The speaker is writing about his grief and misery on an empty page in his book of life. He begins by asking what thoughts he should begin with, as he is empty and grieving. He continues to ask rhetorical questions, and the echoed responses are those he hears in his head in his lover’s voice.
Pack’s usage of rhetorical questions and extended metaphor serve to convey the meaning of his poem. Without these literary devices, having both the speaker’s and his lover’s thoughts in one poem would be impossible. It is because of the extended metaphor and rhetorical questions that the reader understands both the concept of an empty page and echoed responses respectively.