sonnet 75

“Sonnet 75” by Edmund Spenser
What distinguishes Spenser’s poem from earlier poetry is the personal note it strikes. Sonnet 75 was written in 1595 by Edmund Spenser. His Imagination creates a picture of tender young love through the conversation between his lady and himself, absorbed in each other, against the back ground of the sea. Another theme to this poem is that a man wrote his beloved's name in the sand, but it was washed away by the tide.
Edmund Spenser was born in 1552 and attended the Cambridge University. After college he served as personal secretary and became a land owner in Ireland. His most famous piece he wrote was “The Sheepherder’s Calendar.” He also invented a new type of sonnet from the base of intricate patterns. He died in London in 1599. The poet places himself in the center of the poem, telling us about his personal situation, emotions, and convictions. The poet is in love with a woman. In his love, he seeks to find a way to "immortalize" her, her beauty and her existence as it refers to her presence with him.
A man wrote his beloved's name in the sand, but it was washed away by the tide. He writes her name again, but as before the tide washes it away. He writes her name a second time expecting different results,” 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” (1-4). I believe that he is repeatedly writing his beloved's name in the sand to show his relentless need to have his love be remembered forever. He tells her that she will live on through his verse; the love that he wants to live on is between him and his beloved, “To die in dust, but you shall live by fame/ My verse your virtues rare shall eternize/ And in the heavens write your glorious name” (5-12).
I think the best way to relate the poet’s message to the “outside world” is by comparing it to marriage. To show how love bonds to different people together. The man in the poem tries so hard to show how much he loves the woman, and men today do the same. We try to buy our women the biggest most expensive gift to show how much we love them.