“Sonnet 75: One day I wrote her name upon the strand” Introduction

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“Sonnet 75: One day I wrote her name upon the strand” Summary

“Sonnet 75: One day I wrote her name upon the strand” Themes

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  The Immortalizing Power of Poetry

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Sonnet 75: One day I wrote her name upon the strand”

• Lines 1-2

  One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
  But came the waves and washed it away:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  Again I wrote it with a second hand,
  But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 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."

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-10

  "Not so," (quod I) "let baser things devise
  To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-12

  My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,
  And in the heavens write your glorious name:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-14

  Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
  Our love shall live, and later life renew."

  

  

  

  

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“Sonnet 75: One day I wrote her name upon the strand” Symbols

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  The Tide/Waves

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“Sonnet 75: One day I wrote her name upon the strand” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Antanaclasis

  

  

  

  

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• Polyptoton

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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“Sonnet 75: One day I wrote her name upon the strand” Vocabulary

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• Vain
• strand
• Dost
• Assay
• like to this
• Eke
• Quod
• Baser
• devise
• Eternize
• Whenas
• Subdue

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sonnet 75: One day I wrote her name upon the strand”

• Form

• Meter

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“Sonnet 75: One day I wrote her name upon the strand” Speaker

“Sonnet 75: One day I wrote her name upon the strand” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Sonnet 75: One day I wrote her name upon the strand”

More “Sonnet 75: One day I wrote her name upon the strand” Resources

• External Resources

  • Introduction to the English Renaissance — An introduction to the cultural and literary changes occurring during the time of Spenser's England. 

  • Edmund Spenser's Life and Work — Learn more about the poet at the Poetry Foundation. 

  • Amoretti III: The Sovereign Beauty — Another of Spenser's Amoretti poems, written for his wife Elizabeth Boyle. 

  • A Reading of the Poem — Listen to a recording of "Sonnet 75" read by Jordan Harling.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Edmund Spenser

  • Amoretti XXX: My Love is like to ice, and I to fire

  • Prothalamion