Comparison on the Reading and Listening Experiences of Echo and Narcissus
The poem by Ted Hughes mainly focuses on two personalities brought out using both Echo and Narcissus. As such, Echo refers to a nymph who is most favored by a goddess by the name Artemis, who haunted the deep forests and deserts. Hera, who was the wife of Zeus, differed with some of Echo’s traits and therefore made her repeat the last words in a conversation for eternity as her only mode of communication. As a result, they coined her name, Echo, from that incident since she could only literally echo other people’s words. On the other hand, Narcissus was the son of a nymph by the name Liriope. A seer, Tiresias, foresaw that the young man would live a long euphoric life unless he came to realize himself for who he was. However, Ted came with two versions of the poem, one written and the other one oral and both versions have different impacts and experiences to the audience. Conversely, this paper discusses a critically analyzed comparison on the different experiences acquired by the audiences from reading the poem and listening to the poet reciting the poem.
One of the major differences between the two versions is that Ted brings out Echo and Narcissus’s myth more clearly in the written version as compared to the oral version. He brought out the myth from the process where Echo, the nymph, fell in love with an extremely good looking young man, Narcissus, who ended up being an echo of himself after he saw himself in the pond’s reflection. Again, the oral version depicts Echo differently from the written version in that here, a god by the name Juno deprived Echo of her ability to speak as punishment for engaging Juno in dialogue whereas the other nymphs had ran away.
In addition, audiences in the oral version miss out on some symbols used in the written version. Some of those symbols include Ted’s use of a wolf and cat to represent Echo. That is, when Ted compared Echo to a starving wolf which followed a very strong stag that represented Narcissus in this case. In addition, he also referred to Echo as a cat near a fire whereby the cat refused to move away from the fire even though it occasionally burnt its fur. Both symbols portray Echo as being very desperate for Narcissus even though he ultimately gave up on her after knowing himself as predicted earlier on. However, Ted also used a symbol in his oral version where he claimed that after Narcissus bid goodbye to echo, he lay down on the ground and shed tears of despondency. Afterwards, when his friends went to look for his body, they only found purple and white flowers which they named Narcissus and the name stuck up to date. Thus, both versions play a huge part in ensuring that the audiences do not miss out on the different forms of symbolism used by the poet in each version.
In conclusion, audiences from the written poem also miss out greatly on the experience acquired from listening to the poet reciting the poem. The nice articulation, rhythm and flow of words from the poem are very interesting to listen to. The poet also has a great mastery and command of his voice that would make anyone stop and listen to him. As such, both versions have different effects and experiences to the audiences as clearly shown in the essay, but all the same, they are both similar in that Ted is a great author and narrator who knows how to express himself in both ways.
Reference
Retrieved from: https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=QFNOk4uav5U&list…mweb=1 Apr 13, 2010 – The Beautiful Youth and Juno’s Curse. Read by the Poet. ISBN 0141802480
