By Joseph Haygood

EDMUND SPENCER

Edmund Spenser (1552 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for The Fairy Queen an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and

Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and is

considered one of the greatest poets in the English Language. Edmund Spenser published his first important work, The Shepheardes Calender circa 1580. He also worked for courtiers Robert

Dudley and Arthur Lord Grey, deputy of Ireland. It is in Ireland that Spenser wrote most of his masterwork, The Faerie Queene, a multi-part epic poem which glorifies England and its language. The poem pleased

Queen Elizabeth I, who gave Spenser a small pension for life.

ABOUT THE POET

My love is like to ice, and I to fire:how comes it then that this her cold so great

is not dissolved through my so hot desire,but harder grows, the more I her entreat?

Or how comes it that my exceeding heatis not delayed by her heart frozen cold,

but that I burn much more in boiling sweat,and feel my flames augmented manifold?

What more miraculous thing may be toldthat fire, which all thing melts, should harden ice:

and ice which is congealed with senseless cold,should kindle fire by wonderful device?

Such is the pow'r of love in gentle mindthat it can alter all the course of kind.

SONNET 30

The narrator in the poem is helplessly in love

with a woman who does not have the same

feelings for him. While he constantly showers

her with love, affection and attention, all she

does is disregard his existence. Instead of

letting this discourage him, the man allows his

love for the woman to grow stronger, while

she seems to distance herself from him more.

The more he falls in love with her and the

more he tries to be with her, the colder her

heart becomes.

SONNET 30

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.

SONNET 75

This sonnet seems to be about the author’s attempts to immortalize his wife or the love of his life. Spenser starts the poem with a quatrain recalling an incident that could have happened any summer day at the seaside. He writes his love’s name in the sand at the beach, but the ocean’s waves wipe it away, just as time will destroy all manmade

things. The next quatrain describes the woman’s reaction to the man’s charming attempt to immortalize her. She claims

that the man’s attempts were in vain and that no mortal being can be immortalized due to the cruelness of time.

SONNET 75

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

SONNET 18

The speaker begins by asking whether he should or will compare "thee" to a summer day. He says that his beloved is more lovely and more even-tempered. He then runs off a list of reasons why summer isn’t all that great: winds shake the buds that emerged in Spring, summer ends too quickly, and the sun can get too hot or be obscured by clouds. He goes on, saying that everything beautiful eventually fades by chance or by nature’s inevitable changes. Coming back to the beloved, though, he argues that his or her summer

(or happy, beautiful years) won’t go away, nor will his or her beauty fade away. Moreover, death will never be able to

take the beloved, since the beloved exists in eternal lines (meaning poetry). The speaker concludes that as long as humans exist and can see (so as to read), the poem he’s

writing will live on, allowing the beloved to keep living as well.

SONNET 18

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 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,

Our love shall live, and later life renew.

ONE DAY I WROTE HER NAME UPON THE STRAND

He shows the relation between time and immortality. Edmund Spenser employs figurative language to evoke not

only imagery but also an emotional response from the reader. The poem shows us a vivid picture: the couple is along the seaside, the man is trying to write the lady’s

name on the sand, but waves come and wash it away. Then he writes again, but all in vain. The lady persuades him to give up and says that as time passes, she will also die just

as the name wiped out by tide. But the man holds a different point of view: He believes his verses will make her

immortal.

ONE DAY I WROTE HER NAME UPON THE STRAND

Fair is my love, when her fair golden hairs with the loose wind ye waving chance to mark: Fair, when the rose in her

red cheeks appears, Or in her eyes the fire of love does spark: Fair, when her breast, like a rich laden bark With precious merchandise she forth doth lay: Fair, when that cloud of pride, which oft doth dark Her goodly light, with smiles she drives away But fairest she, when so she doth

display The gate with pearls and rubies richly dight, Through which her words so wise do make their way, To

bear the message of her gentle sprite. The rest be works of nature's wonderment, But this the work of heart's

astonishment.

FAIR IS MY LOVE, WHEN HER FAIR GOLDEN HAIRS

He's expressing his amazement of the Female body. He's not doing so in a lustful way, but he is speaking of it with a heart of purity. He speaks of how her gentle touch can wipe away his anger and his pride. He speaks of the gate being

open. He speaks of the women opening herself up to receive a gift.

FAIR IS MY LOVE, WHEN HER FAIR GOLDEN HAIRS

http://www.eastpenn.k12.pa.us/teacherpages/bdoklan/myimages/30Pd9Sonnet.pdf

http://sonnetexplantations.blogspot.com/2008/01/spensers-sonnet-75-and.html

http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/29

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/116detail.html

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/130detail.html

WORKS CITED