Edmund Spenser

Sonnet 75 (Spenser)

'''Sonnet LXXV'''
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,

Strand vs. tide

The beach is the battleground—'strand' is the upper beach where he writes, 'tide' is the ocean's advancing army. He's fighting a war he can't win.

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.

Eke = also

'Eke' is Middle English for 'also.' She's saying her name will be erased just like the sand-writing—total mortality, no exceptions.

Quod I = said I

'Quod' is archaic for 'said'—Spenser uses old-fashioned diction to sound elevated, like he's writing scripture, not beach conversation.

Not so, (quod I) let baser things devise,
to die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
my verse your virtues rare shall eternize,

Eternize

Spenser coins 'eternize' (make eternal) instead of the standard 'immortalize.' He's claiming a godlike power—not just preserving but making eternal.

and in the heavens write your glorious name.
Where when as death shall all the world subdue,
our love shall live, and later life renew.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Poet's Counterargument

The poem is a debate in three moves. First, the speaker tries twice to write his beloved's name in sand—physical writing fails. Second, she mocks him for the obvious: mortal things decay, names included. Third, he pivots completely: forget sand, verse is the real immortality technology.

Notice the word "baser things"—he's creating a hierarchy. Physical matter (sand, flesh, dust) belongs to the lower realm where things "die in dust." But poetry occupies a higher plane, capable of writing names "in the heavens." This isn't metaphor to Spenser; Renaissance poets genuinely believed great verse could outlast empires.

The final couplet makes the wildest claim: their love will survive death and "renew" future lives. He's not just promising her fame—he's promising their relationship will regenerate humanity itself, like a phoenix. This is the climax of the *Amoretti* sequence (this is Sonnet 75 of 89), written during Spenser's courtship of Elizabeth Boyle, whom he married in 1594. The poem doubles as wedding propaganda: look how permanent our love is.

What to Notice About the Waves

The ocean isn't random—it's gendered male ("made my pains his prey"). Spenser sets up a battle: male poet vs. male ocean, fighting over the woman's name. The ocean wins round one by being stronger and cyclical (tides always return). The poet wins round two by switching weapons from sand to syllables.

"Vain" appears twice in line 5, but with different meanings. She calls him vain (foolish/futile) for making a vain (useless) attempt. The pun emphasizes his double failure: the project is impossible AND he's arrogant for trying. Her speech is the poem's only realism—she accepts mortality like a grown-up.

But watch what Spenser does with "virtues rare"—he's not preserving *her*, exactly, but her virtues. The poem immortalizes an idealized version, a greatest-hits compilation. The real Elizabeth Boyle will die. The verse-Elizabeth, stripped down to "rare virtues" and a "glorious name," gets to live forever. It's a compliment and an erasure at the same time.