Analysis of Sonnet 75

Edmund Spenser 1552 (London) – 1599 (London)



One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Agayne I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray.
"Vayne man," sayd she, "that doest in vaine assay.
A mortall thing so to immortalize,
For I my selve shall lyke to this decay,
and eek my name bee wyped out lykewize."
"Not so," quod I, "let baser things devize,
To dy in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens wryte your glorious name.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,
Our love shall live, and later life renew."


Scheme ABABCDBCCECEAF
Poetic Form
Metre 1111010101 110101101 111110101 1101011111 1111110110 011110100 1111111101 01111111 111111011 1101111111 1111111 00010111001 11111011 10111010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 595
Words 122
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 456
Words per stanza (avg) 116
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 30, 2023

35 sec read
214

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. more…

All Edmund Spenser poems | Edmund Spenser Books

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