Edmund Spencer's Sonnet 7 5

Ruth Baez
AP/UCONN English
Mr. Dodge
February 5, 2009
The Mortality of Marriage Edmund Spenser’s “Sonnet 75” is an epithalamium regarding the mortality of marriage. The speaker acts upon his lust, flattering his lover with bribery and continuously asking her to marry him. The poem implies marriage in the third line, with the word “hand,” because it is a synecdoche to marriage. His lover responds with the statement “taking a mortal thing [marriage] so to immortalize [her name]” is senseless, because “[her] name [will] be wiped out likewise” (Spenser 6-8). Spenser’s use of alliteration, metaphor, and hyperbole illustrates the speaker’s failed attempts at love, while revealing his vanity. The speaker shows how his lover controls his emotions in the first four lines of “Sonnet 75” by stating “agayne I wrote it with a second hand, but came the tyde and made my paynes his pray” (4). Though the poem begins with “one day I wrote her name upon the strand, but came the waves and washed it away”, the speaker chooses to repeat his hurtful experience in line four once again with very similar wording (1-2). This meaningful anaphora implies that he must continue to seek for his lover’s genuine love and acceptance to marriage, overlooking what nature may have destined for them. In response, his lover states “man that doest in vaine assay, a mortal thing so to immortalize, for I myself shall lyke to this decay, and eek my name bee wyped out lykewize” (5-8). This reaction demonstrates that she does not wish to marry him because he is a vain man, and because when she dies, her name will be wiped out along with flesh. In lines nine through twelve, the speaker experiences hope as he tries a different approach to persuade his lover into marriage; flattery. The statements “you shall live by fame” and “my verse, your vertues rare shall eternize” clearly demonstrate that his intention is to bribe his lover because he insinuates that she needs him (and his praise) to eternalize her name (10-11). In addition, the heroic couplet concludes the poem without a solution, evident by the excessive use of alliteration in the lines “whereas whenas death shall all the world subdew, our love shall live, and later life renew”. It is obvious that the persona is desperately searching for his lover to marry him, but also obvious that he is only accomplishing to repeat a consistent cycle. Because “Sonnet 75” ends with alliteration just as it starts, one may conclude that there is no solution provided. The sound of Spenser’s “Sonnet 75” emphasizes his grief caused from not being married to the woman he loves. Alliteration is first used on the second line where the speaker shares “but came the waves and washed it away” (2). He then states, “agayne I wrote it with a second hand, but came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray” (3-4). His lover responds to him, saying “vayne man, […] that doest in vaine assay, a mortall thing so to immortalize, for I myself shall lyke to this decay, and eek my name bee wyped out lykewize.” (5-8). However, the speaker continues his offer “to dy in dust, but you shall live by fame: my verse your vertues rare shall eternize” (10-11). The heroic couplet “ where whenas death shall all the world subdew, our love shall live, and later life renew” contains the most use of alliteration because it shows that there is no solution, while also signifying the speaker’s desperateness. This excessive use of alliteration represents the persona’s determination to gain the love of his beloved. In the only three lines that alliteration is not present, it represents hope, reality, and denial. The statements “one day I wrote her name upon the strand” and “in the hevens wryte you glorious name” illustrate hope because the speaker does not know what the outcomes of his actions or offers will be. To show the reality of this unrequited love, the statement “and eek my name bee wyped out lykiwize” is one of the few lines that when looked at alone, does not contain alliteration. Spenser does a great job with showing the speaker’s denial to his lover not wanting to marry him with the statement “not so, (quod I) let baser things devize [to dy in dust]” (9). He is so eager to marry this woman, that he must have a comeback, in order to change her mind, since she believes that her name will “decay” as will her flesh (7). The metaphor “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” is a metonymy to lust and marriage (1-4). Because the speaker is writing her name “upon the strand”, it implies that there is a lot more going on than what appears on the surface (1). One that writes on the shore should have obvious expectations that it would be washed away. Why would they not choose a more promising place? Since the speaker knew that his lover’s name would be washed away by the shore, one may conclude that he was experiencing lust and not genuine love for her. In addition, the mention of “hand” in these first four lines indicates that the persona wants his loved one to marry him. The fact that he mentions ‘hand’ twice, is symbolical because there is an exchange of rings between two people. Through the use of hyperboles, Spenser shows that the speaker’s vanity is the main cause for his beloved not wanting to marry him. Spenser denotes that the love in the poem is not genuine. This is clearly evident by the statement “vayne man, […] that doest in vaine assay a mortall thing so to immortalize”. In this case, the mortal thing that the woman is referring to is marriage, which the speaker is trying to use, to immortalize their love. The speaker writing his lover’s name upon the shore is an exaggeration, as is him stating that the “tyde made [his] paynes his pray” (4). The reader gets the impression that the persona is intentionally writing her name on the shore to experience self pity, for he knew it would eventually wash away. The statement “my verse your vertues rare shall eternize, and in the hevens wryte your glorious name” is the most obvious hyperbole because it points out the speaker’s intentions to win his lover over by using flattery, and making promises he does not hold control over (11-12). Along with the moral message that to win one lover’s heart one should be themselves and not focus on vanity, Spenser’s “Sonnet 75” contains hyperboles, metaphors and alliteration to emphasize that marriage is not immortal. The woman—having more rationality than the man—explains to the speaker that marriage will not immortalize their names, and neither will his flattery or bribery immortalize their love. Though on the surface it may not appear as if the poem is in fact, about marriage, hinting words like “hand” (3), “baser” (9), “virtue” (11), “subdue” (13), “renew” (14), “love” (14), and reassure the reader that there is a deeper meaning—lust and vanity—involved.