Wings of Fire

Lecture 8 Edmond Spenser (1552 – 1599) Edmund Spenser’s ‘‘Sonnet 75’’ was published in 1595 as part of the larger work, Amoretti and Epithalamion. Amoretti are small love poems, in this case, sonnets, and an epithalamion is a wedding song. The work as a whole was written by Spenser to his second wife, Elizabeth Boyle, whom he arried in 1594. In ‘‘Sonnet 75,’’ the speaker is a poetic version of Spenser and the Lover to and about whom he is writing is Elizabeth. The subject of ‘‘Sonnet 75’’ is the immortality of love. In this sonnet, the speaker recounts his effort to immortalize Elizabeth and his love for her. Despite his lover’s doubts about his ability to do this, Spenser assures his lover (and the reader) that through his poetry, her name will be remembered, and after their deaths their love will continue in a new life. In this sonnet, Spenser reveals his faith not only in the enduring nature of his love for Elizabeth but also in his faith in the power of written language and his spiritual confidence in eternal life.

The Sonnet Text : 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 doest in vain assay A mortal thing so to immortalize, For I myself shall like to this decay, And eek my name be wiped out likewise. Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise 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. Where whenas Death shall all the world subdue, Out love shall live, and later life renew. POEM SUMMARY : Lines 1–4
In Spenser’s ‘‘Sonnet 75,’’ the poet expresses in a straightforward manner his conviction regarding the immortal nature of his affection for his lover. With the first two lines the speaker establishes the framework for the poem. He relates how he wrote the name of his lover in the sand on the beach, only to have it washed away by