One Day I Wrote her Name

ONE DAY I WROTE HER NAME[SONNET=75]

Introduction-----Edmund Spencer

Amoretti is a collection of Spencer‘s love poems [ sonnets] in the Petrarchan context. It has eighty-nine sonnets that shows Spenser’s love for Elizabeth Boyle. Amoretti was first published in 1595 in London by William Ponsonby.This sonnet cycle describes his courtship and eventual marriage with Elizabeth Boyle.  He has celebrated his marriage  in his Epithalamion.The poem ‘’ONE DAY I WROTE HER NAME’’is one of the famous poems of this sonnet sequence That tells the story of Spenser’s love for his ladylove .The usual rhyme-scheme of the sonnets is abab,bcbc,cdcd,ee, and it was written in iambic pentameter

Critical Analysis:

        ''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 payns his prey.''

The poet is trying  to immortalize his love. He attempts to write his lady’s name on the strands but his efforts are marred by the high tide of the sea that washes away the name. Noticing his attempts,his beloved tells him not to do such impossible thing that is to write her name on the sea beach. She politely reminds him nothing on this earth remains forever.Not only her name but also she herself will one day vanishes from the shore of her life . No one can escape from the cruel clutch of time/death.Death is certain.
According to the poet,

            '' Vayne man, sayd she, that doest in vaine assay
               a mortal thing so to immortalize,
               for I  my selue shall lyke to this decay,
               and eek my name bee wyped out lykewize.'' 
  

In response to his beloved,he promises to eternalize her through the power of his verse. Her name, her virtue & there love will be glorified or remembered from ages to ages, & generations to generations through his sonnet.That's why the poet says,

             ''Not so,[quod I] let baser things deuize
              to dy in dust,but you shall liue by fame
               my verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
               and in the hevens wryte your glorious name.
               Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,
                our love shall live,and later life renew.'' 
                                          

However, Spencer shows his optimistic look at love in his sonnet sequence 'Amoretti' to break the tradition of Elizabethan age to disobey the idea of pessimism.Infect his sonnet[no-75] shows such optimism that his love will be immortal through the power of his verse.