Table of Contents
One Day I Wrote her Name Questions and Answers
Short Essay Type Questions with Answers
Q. 1. Discuss One Day I Wrote her Name as a sonnet.
Ans. This poem by Edmund Spenser is Sonnet 75 of Amoretti. In many ways Spenser follows the model of the Petrarchan sonnet by posinga problem in the octave and working out its resolution in the sestet. The sonnet has linked rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee. Thequest of the poet to immortalize in verse the beauty and the love of his fairbeloved also has Petrarchan echoes. However, Spenser substantially readjuststhe Petrarchan model by seeing the mistress not as an unattainable model ofperfection, but as a creature reflecting the glory of her Divine Creator.Traditional criticism would concentrate precisely on such differences andsimilarities in theme and rhyme scheme. Feminist literary criticism wouldsubject this sonnet to a reading in which gender plays an important role.
In this poem, Spenser’s consideration is the problem of making something thatis mortal immortal. Speaking of his attempt to immortalize the name of hismistress, he says that his writing is susceptible to the forces of nature whichensure its erasure. His mistress, in fact, is given a voice and articulates herexasperation with his vain efforts since all mortal things are fated to die. Thelover responds that only baser forms of life perish, but higher and virtuousforms of life can be immortalized in his art. It is his poetic versification of her life and times that would outlive everything which is prone to decay, including her material body.
Q. 2. Discuss One Day I Wrote her Name as a dramatic poem. Or, Spenser’s Sonnet no. 75 is dramatic as well as lyrical. Discuss.
Ans. In Sonnet no. 75,Spencer is successful at bringing two contradictory forms of poetry in a same place with a magnificent harmony. The poem is lyrical and dramatic at the same time. A beautiful lyric is maintained in the poem and the dramatic situation is created by the dialogue between the speaker and his beloved.
It starts in a perfect romantic setting where the poet-lover and his beloved are sited on the sea shore in amorous mood. The poet writes his beloved’s name on the sandy beach, the sea waves comes and washes it away. As the lover repeats the task, ironical tone, teases his excessive pride and vanity. Being a woman of flesh and blood, the waves do the same. On noticing the futile efforts of her lover, the beloved, in a she is bound to perish. She is well aware that she has no escape from time’s icy hand. brings out the grim problem, the mortal nature of youth and beauty in the world of impermanence:
“Vain man, said she, that dost in vain assay
A mortal thing so to immortalise,
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eek my name be wiped out likewise.”
Though the ladylove is showing doubts and is even disdainful, the speaker, with through. firm conviction, declares that his love shall triumph over death and live ever The poet wishes to articulate the love to his dear in his poetry of artistic excellence. The poetry, he thinks, will renew their love beyond their physical years:
“My verse your virtues rare shall eternise,
And in the heavens write your glorious name.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live and later life renew.”
Spenser is here original for its perfect blend of dramatic mood and indomitable passion of love.Sonnet no. 75 carries out a discussion on the problem of time and transient world and the permanency of love, en route writing poetry of magnum opus. The sonnet is also noted for its dramatic texture. Though the lyrical and dramatic are two contradictory terms, Spenser brings about a magnificent harmony between them.
Q. 3. Consider Spenser’s sonnet 75 as a love poem.
Ans. Spenser’s Sonnet no. 75 celebrates the triumph of love and through that eternalizes not only the beloved but the verse which has become the medium for that immortality. The sonnet represents the Renaissance ideal of balance between emotion, reason and artistry. Read the sonnet through; absorb the lyrical movement of the lines, identify the rhyme scheme and trace the development of thought. The sonnet is the Spenserian variation of the Petrarchan sonnet form consisting of fourteen lines divided into two parts typically known as an Octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines). In this sonnet Spenser links each quatrain to the next by a continuing rhyme abab bcbc cdcd ee. The first quatrain reflects the poet’s obsession with the idealized beloved – in this love for Elizabeth Boyle because the Amoretti sonnets sought to describe the many phases of Spenser’s courtship. The lover’s efforts are washed away and the voice of reason prevails, case –
Vain man, said she, that dost in vain assay A mortal thing so to immortalize,
For I myself shall like to this decay,
name is wiped out otherwise.”
And eek my The octave thus traces one pattern of thought and action. The sestet, i.e., the next part of the sonnet introduces and lyrically constructs a counterargument which ends the sonnet on a note of affirmation, and transcendence. The facts of decay and death are not denied but the possibility of survival beyond death on another plane remains to provide its own rewards befitting that love which is pure and sincere. The sonnet represents the innovation as well as the artistry cultivated by a poet like Spenser. In a typical Renaissance fashion, the sonnet also celebrates the value and performance of art the way in which Shakespeare did later. The sonnet is significant in its deviation from the convention, in which the beloved is the “hunted” and the poet, the “hunter” who fails in his chase. Sonnet LXXV elevates the relationship of the lovers to a plane of memorable actualization.
Short Questions with Answers
Q.1. “One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away;”- Explain.
Ans. These lines set the scene: speaker is recalling some past event of his life with his beloved, Elizabeth Boyle in the seaside. The speaker decides to write her name in the sand. However, the waves wash her name away. The writing on the sand refers to the lover’s insistence on making a worldly impact on his beloved. The waves are metaphorically used to represent the futile attempt by man to fight back against the infinite vortex of time.
Q. 2. “Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide and made my pains his prey.” – Explain. Or, Explain the phrase “made my pains his prey”.
Ans. Feeling challenged after the first futile attempt, the speaker again writes her lover’s name in the sand, but again the sea waves erase his beloved’s name. His futile action has been the prey of sea waves .He basically imagines that the waves are like a mean old predator or a bird of prey, just waiting to pounce on his poor defenseless writing.
Q. 3. “Vain man (said she) that dost in vain assay
A mortal thing so to immortalise;
For I myself shall lyke to this deca
And eek my name bee wyped out likewise” – Why does the lady rebuke the poet? Or, Why did the lady call the speaker a ‘vain man’?
Or, Give the meaning of the words ‘vain’.
Ans. On noticing the futile efforts of her lover, the beloved, in an ironical tone, teases his excessive pride and vanity. The first ‘vain’ refers to the boastful person who commits stupid things. The second ‘vain’ suggests the fruitless and useless attempt. Being a woman of flesh and blood, she is bound to perish. She is well aware that she has no escape from time’s icy hand. It brings out the grim problem, the mortal nature of youth and beauty in the world of impermanence.
Q. 4. Who is the ‘mortal thing’ being referred to here?
Ans. Either the lady or her name is referred to here as the ‘mortal thing. She points out that thingsthat are mortal have to die. Indeed, it is a vain wishto try and make such things endure. She too willdie and her name will be erased from this earth.
Q. 5. “Not so, (quod I) let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your virtues rare shall eternise,
And in the heavens write your glorious name.”-Explain.
Or, How does the speaker propose to eternize the virtues of his beloved?
Or, How does the speaker respond to the reproach of his beloved?
Ans. The poet responds here to his lady-love’s objections. He saysthat only things that are lowly do not endure .Someone as noble and virtuous as her shall live permanently inhis poetry. Spenser here is drawing upon theconventional image of an idealized mistress. He isalso contrasting the impermanence of life to thepermanence of art.
Q. 6. Why, according to the speaker, the name of his beloved will not ‘die in dust’?
Ans. The lover goes on to say that his verses would preserve her for all eternity and his poetic versification of her life and times would outlive everything that is prone to decay, including her material body. Fame would preserve her for eternity.
Q. 7. “Our love shall live and later life renew.” – What does the speaker mean by ‘later life renew’?
Ans. According to the speaker, even though both he and his beloved will be long gone from the phase of this earth, but the everlasting love the poet had towards his wife will always be known and remembered for more generations to come. When everything on the earth will surrender in front of the cruel time and death, their love will raise from that level and live an eternal life. Every time his sonnet is read and recited, their love will be renewed.
Q. 8. How does the poet blends pessimism and optimism at the end of the poem?
Ans. When, at the end of the poem, the speaker claims that “Our (their) love shall live”, we see a wonderful blending of pessimism and optimism. Pessimism is noticed in the poet’s apprehension that the earth will surrender in front of the cruel time and death; but he is optimistic about the thing that their love will raise from that level and live an eternal life.
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