Some lovers strive to leave a lasting trace of their relationship, even after death. This desire to leave an imprint is a basic human tendency to be immortal. The speaker in “One Day I Wrote Her Name” by Edmund Spenser also expresses the same desire. We will examine the probable reason behind the motivation while keeping the poem as our primary reference.

To begin our discourse, let us start our discussion with a summary of the sonnet.

One Day I Wrote Her Name Summary

“Amoretti LXXV: One Day I Wrote Her Name” is an Elizabethan sonnet where the speaker expresses his yearning to immortalize his love. The lover writes her name one day on the sand of a beach. After a while, the waves erase it. He writes it again, and the tide washes away her name again.

After witnessing his attempt, his beloved informs him that it is impossible to write her name without the wave affecting it. Like his words, everything and everyone is transitory. He replies that he will counter death by writing a poem about her through his verse which will eternize her virtues and immortalize his love. Death cannot do anything to them, even if everything perishes.

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Analysis

“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.”

The speaker is in contemplative mode and recalls a day in the past. He is at the strand with his lady and is enjoying their intimate moments. The speaker writes her name on the sand. As he finishes, the waves come to the shore and wipe out the letters. He rewrites it, but his effort goes into vain since the tide cleans it again. 

This act of inscribing her name implies attempts by man to eternalize the existence of love. It is a tendency that we often see in most of us. The speaker tries to make his beloved immortal. 

But the waves and tide are obstacles on his path. The effort of the speaker to make her immortal continues, and his reattempt highlights his struggle. Unfortunately, the waves and tide wash away his efforts.

They suggest the unstoppable passing of time that alter or destroy things. The speaker personifies the tide as a dominant person who has made his pains his prey. He uses personification to suggest the superiority of time over mortal beings. 

The personification of the tide as a predator also reinforces the idea of impermanence and the inevitability of change. The speaker depicts the tide as an untamed force. Similar to the unstoppable waves, he cannot stop it from cleaning the name written on the beach.

The word “prey” further emphasizes the idea of the uncontrollable power of time over human endeavors. Therefore, the “pain” implies a sense of helplessness of the speaker after seeing the name wiped away. He emphasizes that no matter how much effort we put into something, we cannot prevent the inevitable changes that come with time.

“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.”

The alliteration of the “v” in the fifth line emphasizes the futility of his actions. The efforts of the speaker to preserve the name of his beloved is ineffective, and that time will ultimately erase them.

Upon witnessing the speaker writing her name on the sand, the woman points out his futile attempts to make her name everlasting. He is trying to immortalize the name of a mortal. She argues that no matter how many times he writes her name, it will not last. Every being and everything in the world will eventually decay and cease to exist over time, just like her name on the sand. 

It suggests the limits of humans in the face of the natural world. The ability of time to erase everything is more powerful than mortal beings and their creations. 

Unlike other Elizabethan sonnets, the poem is primarily a dialogue between the speaker and his beloved. These four lines express the realistic view that the woman holds toward the world. She understands that nothing is immortal in the fleeting world. 

Allowing her to participate actively in the dialogue makes her a dynamic character, and her response also adds depth to her character. Consequently, it differentiates her from the passive characters of other Elizabethan sonnet sequences like Daniel. It shows the agency of her character, which is not present in traditional love sonnets.

“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:”

These lines mark the volta in the poem, a shift from a focus on the fleetingness of the world and the limitation of man to the power of poetry to preserve her memory. These lines express the view of the speaker on the idea of mortality. 

The speaker presents a way to overcome the mighty time by immortalizing her through poetry. He is aware of the transitory nature of the world. Therefore, he tells her that insignificant things should be left to decay. He thinks that ordinary things have little importance compared to her virtues. So, these things are not worth preserving. 

On the other hand, the speaker believes she is worthy of being immortalized. The phrase “glorious name” reinforces that he views her in an elevated manner. He tells her that he will celebrate her virtues in a poem, and his verse will eternize her nature. As a result, it will not be affected by time. People will remember her through his creation. He will not write her name in the sand but in heaven, signifying a lasting and glorious legacy. Heaven suggests immortality or an everlasting place beyond the mortal world. 

We find the speaker stressing the power of poetry in another sonnet, “Amoretti: Sonnet 27”. The poem is a comparison between physical beauty and the power of art. He addresses a woman and tells her beauty will be lost as if she had never lived. It is temporary, but the poem that he is writing will stand against time and bring a lasting effect. 

“Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.”

The speaker states that even though death will conquer everything, it cannot do anything to their love. Even if things and people disappear under the cruel clutches of time, his verse will endure it. Their love will renew in the following generations. Time cannot erase their existence. They will be immortal. 

Tone

The tone of this poem is a mixture of bleakness and optimism. The tone of despair prevails in the octave. It is evident in the labors of the speaker to immortalize his deep love for his beloved by writing her name upon the strand, but his efforts are in vain as the waves wash it away. The woman stresses the eventuality of death of everything and being. 

The somber mood shifts to an optimistic tone in the sestet. The speaker seems to have acknowledged the inevitability of death, but he declares that their love will live on even after death. He assures her that through his verse, it is possible to eternize her virtues, and consequently, their love will survive death. 

Structure

Similar to the sonnets “Amoretti LXVII: Like as a Huntsman” and “Amoretti LVII: Sweet Warrior”, “One Day, I Wrote Her Name” also follows the Petrarchan sonnet style. It has fourteen lines and follows the rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. 

As a sonnet, it has two parts: octave and sestet. In the octave, we observe the problem in the poem. The speaker faces a challenge in preserving his love for eternity. It is a struggle between a seemingly insignificant individual like him and the ruthless force of time. 

The volta occurs at the beginning of the sestet, where the speaker argues that he can immortalize her through his poem. It is a counterargument to her argument that mortal nothing can be immortal. This change of opinion represents a shift from the transience of things to the power of poetry to immortalize and preserve memory.

Theme

The theme is the fleeting nature of the world and the desire to achieve immortality through art. The speaker wants to cherish the virtues of his beloved and their love as a whole. He views poetry means to transcend the limitations of the physical world and generating something that can withstand the test of time. 

What is the intrinsic motivation that leads him to do that? There are several theories and possible insights to interpret that. One of them is:

Symbolic Immortality Theory

This theory suggests that artists seek immortality through symbols that can represent them and their achievements. Works of art can serve as such symbols, representing their personality, values, and legacy.

By writing a poem about a person, a poet can capture the person in words and surpass his mortality. Through his work, a poet can achieve a sense of symbolic immortality as long as the readers keep reading his words and discussing his ideas.

The speaker realizes the passage of time is cruel, as it keeps erasing his efforts. The waves suggest the destructive force of time. The poet is aware of the transitory world. So, he decides to write a poem that will remain the same even if death destroys all traces of everything. His idea to write a poem about her will become a symbolic immortality.

Terror Management Theory 

Moreover, another theory related to the desire for immortality in art is Terror Management Theory (TMT).

According to TMT, the fear of death or the awareness of mortality creates existential anxiety. Men seek to create something to cope with this anxiety that will outlast their life as a way of transcending death.

Art and creative expression, in this context, serve as a symbolic defense mechanism against the fear of mortality, allowing artists to leave a lasting mark on the world and achieve a sense of psychological immortality.

The repeated struggle between the speaker and the waves and tide while writing the name on the sand implies the impermanent nature of existence and the inability of man to preserve things he holds dearly. Moreover, the comment of the woman that both she and the writing will eventually fade away makes the speaker realize the destructive nature of the world.

In the case of the speaker, he wants to immortalize his beloved and love through his poem. We can see his idea as a way of coping with the inescapable reality of mortality. By capturing the essence of a person in his poem, the speaker will feel a sense of control over mortality, as his creation becomes a timeless representation of the woman, preserving her virtues and his love.

Through crafting a poem that holds value and is worthy of admiration, he believes that he can mitigate the anxiety of death and gain a sense of permanence, significance, and transcendence.

The speaker expresses a sense of triumph over the transience of mortal life when he chooses to write a poem. The sonnet expresses the idea that love and art can provide a form of immortality, even if physical life is fleeting. As long as people read his poem, his love will be alive among people.

Key Takeaways from the Post

1. The concept of symbolic immortality.
2. Terror Management Theory.
3. How can we relate them to understand the desire for the immortality of the speaker?

It is important to note that they are just two possible interpretations among several interpretations of the desire for immortality in art. We will discuss the other possible reasons to be immortal in “Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” by Shakespeare. Art is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, and a combination of personal, cultural, and psychological factors influence the desire for immortality in art.

Overall, in Sonnet 75 the speaker reflects on the transience of human life and the inevitability of death and considers how he can transcend the limitations of mortality through his work. 

References

Matějková, Julie. Femininity in Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti. 2018. Univerzita Karlova, B.A. thesis.