1. By Joseph Haygood
EDMUND SPENCER

2. 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

3. 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 heat
is 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 told
that 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 mind
that it can alter all the course of kind.
SONNET 30

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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 fade
Nor 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. http://www.eastpenn.k12.pa.us/teacherpages/bdoklan/myimages/30Pd9Sonn
et.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