Amoretti LXXV: One Day I Wrote Her Name

Sunday, June 3, 2012




One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Agayne I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray.
"Vayne man," sayd she, "that doest in vaine assay.
A mortall thing so to immortalize,
For I my selve shall lyke to this decay,
and eek my name bee wyped out lykewize."
"Not so," quod I, "let baser things devize,
To dy in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens wryte your glorious name.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,
Our love shall live, and later life renew." 


The poem “One day I wrote her name upon the strand” is written by Edmund Spenser, for his lady love, Elizabeth Boyle, who later becomes his wife.

Amoretti is a sonnet cycle by Edmund Spencer. It's a sonnet of 14 lines with a rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee... This word is derived from the Latin word, "Amor" meaning Cupid.

This poem tries to portray that, if you love someone, the love does not have to end.  Love is eternal.  

The purpose of this poem, is to make one realize that lives are not forever, relationships are not forever, but love is. Love is the only thing stretches beyond mortality. It follows us to our next lives and lead to the path to heaven.

The opening scene reveals a man writing his woman's name on the sand, but it's washed away by the waves.  He tries again, but it happens again. “But came the tyde, and made my paynes his prey”. 

The first eight lines of this poem, beautifully illustrates a man who tries to make his mortal love, immortal.This man tried to write her name upon the strand twice, he is trying to do the same thing twice and hopes to expect different results, this illustrates insanity on the mans part. His lady love calls him “Vayne man".  "Vayne" (vain) because he writes on the sand, expecting for the name to stay and it obviously wont because the tide will wash it away. She continues, “that doest in vayne assay a mortall thing so to immortalize. For I my selve shall, lyke to this decay, And eek my name bee wyped out lykewize”, meaning her lover is a fool in the aspect of life and relationships. Just like the sand is washed away from the tide, she will die eventually, one day and there is nothing that he can do to control that,as immortality is not real. 

The poem goes on to say “Not so,” quod I, “let baser things devize, to dy in dust, but you shall live by fame: My verse your vertues rare shall eternize, And in the heavens wryte your glorious name”. Here poet claims that, he can make their love last forever despite mortality. He says he can do this by using his verse.  

The last two lines of the poem are the rhyming couplets, “Where whenas death shall all the world subdew, Our love shall live, and later life renew.” What the poet is trying to portray is that they may live mortal lives but their love will last forever. They will be together until death and even after death they will reunite into the kingdom of heaven, where they will live forever.

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