"One Day I Wrote Her Name" by Edmund Spenser: An Analysis

"One Day I Wrote Her Name" by Edmund Spenser: An Analysis

One Day I Wrote is a remarkable sonnet taken from Edmund Spenser's collection of 89 sonnets, Amoretti (1595). Amoretti celebrates Spenser's courtship with his beloved Elizabeth Boyle and their wedding on 11th June 1594. Through the sonnets of this collection, Spenser tries to immortalize his lady-love with the help of wordplay. The word Amoretti comes from the Italian Amore (love) from the Latin Amor. Edmund Spenser who is called 'the poet's poet', is known for his memorable work The Faerie Queene and for his distinctive verse form known as the Spenserian stanza. He has also invented his sonnet form with the rhyme scheme - abab bcbc cdcd ee.

One Day I Wrote is a sonnet about the poet's immortalization of his love and the name of his beloved Elizabeth Boyle against the destructive power of Time. In sonnets, Time is always represented as the most powerful omnipotent power and everyone has to come under its umbrella. Not only human beings but also animals, creatures, nature everything has to be controlled by Time. None has the power to stand before Time and none has the power to make Time stand. But the poets also assert the power of art. Art is superior to Time. Time can only be defeated by Art.

One Day I Wrote is written in dramatic form. The setting of this sonnet is also dramatic. The lover and the beloved sitting side by side at the seashore are conversing together. The lover tries, again and again, to write the name of his beloved on the sand bank, but his every attempt becomes a failure as every time the wave comes and washes it away. Seeing this 'vain' attempt, his beloved addresses him as a 'vain' man. She also replies to him not to try to make a mortal thing to immortalize. It is impossible. Everything in this world is mortal and subject to decay and death. None can escape from the hand of death and destruction. In the same way, she is also subject to death as well as her name will also be wiped out one day.

But the lover refuses to agree with his beloved's view. He asserts that 'base metals' will be transformed into dust. But his beloved will endure forever with her fame. The lover also adds that he will praise her rare beauties and virtues in his poetry and his poetry will be read by generation after generation, and there by her name will revive permanently. He also opines that he'll write her name in heaven. In this way, he will be able to immortalize his love and his beloved's name forever, even after the destruction of this world when this world and life are renewed, their love also will be revived again.

Thus, One Day I Wrote is, no doubt, a glorification of love and beauty against the ravagious nature of Time. This sonnet like many other Elizabethan sonnets establishes the superiority and victory of Art over the annihilating power of Time. It presents the conflict between Time vs. Beauty / Love, and finally the poet's assertion of his poetic power.