ECHO, in poetry, a kind of composition wherein the last words or syllables of each verse contains some meaning, which, being repeated apart, answers to some question
tion or other matter contained in the verse; as in this beautiful one from Virgil:
Cruelis mater magis, en puer improbus ille?
Improbus ille puer, crudelis tu quoque mater.
The elegance of an echo consists in giving a new sense to the last words; which reverberate, as it were, the motions of the mind, and by that means affect it with surprise and admiration.