One Day I wrote her Name
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."
Marks - 2
* What does Edmund Spenser say “our love shall live, and later life re new”?
=> Here in this poem “one day I wrote her name” Spenser says that their mutual love will I’ve forever because his poetic creation would have regenerate power which could give immortality upon their love.
* What roll does the tide play in the sonnet “One day I wrote her name”?
In the sonnet "One Day I wrote her Name" 'tide’ stands for the deplorable time which destroys everything. It suggests that it is a vain attempt to make a mortal.
* “a mortal thing so to immortalize”
What is made by an immortal thing?
Who wants to immortalize it?
=> In “One day I wrote her name” by “a immortal thing” the poet Spenser thinks his beloved.
The poet lover wants to immortalize it.
* What type of the sonnet is “One day I wrote her name”?
This is a Petrarchan sonnet with a difference. There is composed of quatrains with a couplet but there is a turn of thought in the middle like a Petrarchan sonnet. The rhyme scheme of the sonnet is abab bcbc cdcdee.
* What happened when the poet wrote his Beloved’s name on the sea-beach?
The name got washed off due to sea-waves rushing on to the beach. The poet tried the same thing again, and the result was the same, proving the futility of his effort.
* ‘For I myself like to his decay
And eek my name be wiped out likewise’
Who says this and where? What does she mean to say?
This is supposed to be said by the Poet’s mistress in Spenser’s Sonnet “One Day I Wrote Her Name upon the strand.” She means that it is not possible to preserve forever either the name or the life of a mortal person; that one day she would be physically wiped off like her name has been washed of by waves.
* How
does the Poet propose to immortalize the Name of her beloved in ‘One day I
wrote her Name’ and
why?
The poet will not again write his Beloved’s name on the sea-beach, but will glorify it in great poetry that will stand the test of time. He will do it because he loves her truly and admires her rare virtues.
Spenser emphatically announces in the concluding couplet of his Sonnet, that when the Dooms day shall come, and everything be dead, the love between himself and his beloved will be reborn in heaven, asserting its undying quality.
# Write a note on critical appreciation of the poem “One day I wrote her name”.
Spenser’s sonnet “One day I wrote her name” is the sonnet no 75 of the
amoretti sonnet sequence which expresses Spencer’s love and courtship of
Elizabethan Boyle whom Spenser married afterword’s. In this sonnet Spenser
express his genuine feelings without recourse to allegory. Spencer’s sonnets
are unique by their poetry and sincerity. He combines his poetry the Renaissance
love of beauty and idealistic aspirations. His mistress to him is more than a
mere woman. She becomes a glorious image of the maker’s beauty and earthly
manifestation of the ‘heavenly ray’ which illuminates the dull word; she is the
type of the eternal beauty of loving fire.
The sonnet begins with a feeling of dejection. The lover writes the name of his beloved but waves wash it away. He writes it second time but again the waves efface it. The situation is dramatic the lover and his beloved sitting side by side against the background of the vast rolling ocean. The vastness of the sea shows in relief the littleness of human endeavor. There is a beautiful picture with the sea as the background of the two lovers discussing love and life. The lover's Lamentation of the futility of his efforts is followed by a dialogue between the lover and the beloved which adds to thedramatic vividness and immediacy. The beloved strikes an ironical note and affirms the supremacy of time over all earthly thins. She like all others will be subject to decay. She makes a dig at the confidence of the lover by playing on the vain. The lover refuses to submit to the supremacy of time. He will perpetuate their love in poetry in defiance of all conquering power of time and death. the robust note of optimism is struck in the couplet:
"Where when as death shall all the world subdue
Our love shall live, and later life renew."
The poem is a simple and sincere expression of the poet's feeling for the beloved.This sincerity and clarity of language and images. The poem is not over burdened with imagery that we find in the sonnets of Sidney and Shakespeare. However, the poet compared the tide to a bird of pray that destroys the pain of his writing the name of the beloved. Time and tide represent the destructive power. The ironical note is struck by the use of pun - vayne and vaine. Again, there is the same ironical suggestion in the use of moral and immortalize. As contrasted with the ironical and realistic tone of the beloved, the lover's voice is confident and romantic. there is the metaphorical suggestion of base metal and gold in the expressions "baser things deuize to dy in dust", the mistress has rare virtues i.e., sterling quality of gold.
The poem has simple music and rhythmic flow of lines. Indeed, the poet has created remarkable music by simple words , with liquid vowel sounds and soft consonants ----wrote , strand, tide, rain etc . The lines are written in Iambic Pentameter with rhyme scheme --abab bcbc cdcd ee . In the effect the first line has choppy quality with harsh sound like where, whenas, death, subdew.But the last line has soft and alliteration -- love , live,life. The use of puns, colloquialism and archaism's like vayne, vaine, eek, quod enhance the conventional ease and simplicity and adds to the dramatic structure of the beautiful sonnet.
One Day I wrote Her Name
Discuss Spenser’s ‘One Day I Wrote Her Name’ as a Dramatic Poem.
In the poem "One Day I Wrote Her Name" Spenser genuinely wants to make his Elizabeth Boile. Interminable by Inscribing her name on the Sandy shore of the Ocean. With sincere energy, the Poet Inscribed her name again on the shore of the ocean for the subsequent time. Be that as it may, this time to his excruciating exertion gets useless. At that point the writer Beloved Tears at his fetal endeavor to make her unfading by scratching her name upon the shore. At that point, his Beloved in a bantering tone tails the Poet------
“vain man, said she, that do vain essay,
A mortal things shows im-mortalies.”
The Poet then learns that like his Beloved he took it subject to decay and destruction and his name will wiped out like wise from the earth.
“For I myself shall like to his decay,
And eek my name be wiped out decay.”
However, the Poet does not admit defeat in his attempt and thereby considers that the beser and insignificant things may be reduced into dust and may not leave any impression on earth but his beloved remains with fame and virtue. As a result the Poet wishes to make her Beloved immortal by recording her virtues in his internal verse. Even the Poet thinks that the noble and virtues name of the lady will be inspired in heaven therefore the confidently speaks,
“My verse your virtues shall internize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name.”
The Poet also considers that when all the World meet death and destruction, the love of the poet for his beloved will remain forever and their love will be renewed.
The topic of the Poem is significantly imagined and drastically introduced by Spenser. The circumstance or the foundation of the sonnet without a doubt survived from a show. There is wavy Ocean unceasingly moving towards the shore and the reposeful sweethearts contemplatively hold up upon the foundation of the Ocean. A sensational difference has been drawn between the eating up nature of the immense Ocean and the path human undertaking.
The lovers considers himself very insignificant in relation to vast and enormous power of the Ocean and it obviously records how human endeavor is frail to the uncontrollable power of nature. Again, the wailing of the lover about the futility of his endeavor is followed by are Ironical reply of the Beloved.
“vain man that doest in vain essay.”
She also jeers at her lover by saying that it is foolishness to make “a mortal things immortal.” The dialogue between the lover and the Beloved is surcharged with dramatic vividness and vivacity. The Beloved admits the supremacy of time and he is confident of the lover to make the mortal. But at once the lovers destines yield to the supremacy of time and he is confident to perpetuate their love in poetry defying the destructive power of time and death. The poet sums up closing couplet.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew."
Apart from this we are acquainted with the most cardinal feature of drama in the poem and that is the conflict in the mind of the lover. There is despondency in the tone of the lover about that success of his attempt to make his Beloved immortal and undoubtedly he suffers from the conflict in his mind which is an important ingredient of a drama. For all this reasons the poet may be branded as a dramatic one.
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