One Day I Wrote Her Name
Edmund Spenser
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
"Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise."
"Not so," (quod I) "let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew."
Introduction
: "Amoretti " is the well-known sonnet sequence of Edmund Spenser. It consists 88 Sonnets which are addressed to his beloved Elizabeth Boyle. Here Spenser is not the victim of disappointed love as he was bound in wed-lock with Elizabeth in 1594. "One Day I Wrote Her Name " is the sonnet No. 75 of "Amoretti ". The term 'Amoretti' is derived from the French word 'amour' that means 'love . "Amoretti " mians 'little love'. In the structure of a love story the poet has provided an eternal theme - the conflict between 'time' and 'beauty'. Time devours everything, but 'love' and 'beauty' can never be vanquished.
Summary (Line 1 - 4)
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
The poem starts with a very familiar picture involving a lover and his beloved who are sitting, as usual, on the sea shore. The lover-poet writes the name of his beloved on the strand but a wave comes and washes out the name. The lover writes the name for the second time but the tide comes and makes the poet's endeavor futile(wipes this time also).
Summary (Line 5 -8)
"Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise."
What is the lover trying to do ? He is trying to immortalize a mortal thing, his beloved. For this the lady-love calls her lover a 'vayne man' meaning proud and foolish man. His attempt to make her eternal would prove to be fruitless. Her argument is that she, being a person of flesh and blood, is subject to decay and naturally her name would go to the depth of oblivion.
Summary (Line 9 -12)
"Not so," (quod I) "let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
The lover-poet is not ready to accept the argument of his sweetheart. He refutes her argument by saying that the 'baser things' i.e. the things of lower quality would die in dust and be forgotten. But his darling is a specimen of rarity and naturally she would live by fame. Her rare virtues are captured in the verse of the poet and she has become eternal. Her glorious name would be written in the pages of heaven.
Summary (Line 13 & 14)
"Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew."
The lover concludes the poem with a grave piece of philosophy. He emphatically says that death or time can vanquish everything of this world except love. Their love is eternal, it would never die. Their love would be the source of delight and inspiration for the 'later life' , the coming generation. The lovers would come from generation to generation and follow the path of love paved by the poet and his beloved. Naturally, their love would be renewed and would renew the 'later life' , the lovers of future world.
