One Day I Wrote her Name
BY EDMUND SPENSER

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 eke my name be wiped out likewise."
"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:
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew."


Apparently Spencer and his girlfriend are sitting on the sea shore and then he wrote her name on the sand which the sea washed away. He wrote it again and this time too the waves didn’t show mercy. His girlfriend said this ain't a fair deal and his efforts are in vain. She said a mortal thing cant be immortalised. Like her life, the name will also succumb to decay. He points out that he would not let this happen and she will leave by fame-he will imortalise her through his verses and their love will leave even after they die and each time somebody reads the verses written for her she will live through them. This is a common theme in the literature where writers use their works to immortalise those things that are not under their control.