ONE DAY I WROTE HER NAME

                                            Edmund Spenser

1.   1 Name the sonnet series to which “One day I wrote her name” belongs to? What is the theme of the series

Ans: Spenser’s sonnet “One day I wrote her name” belongs to “Amoretti”, a series of eighty nine love sonnets which give an idealized account of his own courtship with Elizabeth Boyle. The sonnets celebrate the renaissance love beauty and idealistic aspiration. A curious undertone of melancholy is delicately blended in the sonnets.

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         . 2         Do you think “One day I wrote her name” is a representative Spenserian sonnet?

Ans: As a representative Spenserian sonnet “One day I wrote her name” celebrates Renaissance love of beauty and idealistic aspiration through simple language and commonplace imagery .The simple emotion of love runs throughout the sonnet and culminates in the poet’s bold assertion in the supremacy of poetic art to immortalize his love. 

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            3      “One day I wrote her name” is typical in its idealization--- Do you agree ?

Ans: Like a typical Renaissance love poetry, Spenser’s “One day I wrote her name” is inspired by the high ideal of sincere love. The poem is the poet’s bold assertion of the supremacy of poe5tic art to eternalize love and to make it triumphant over the ravages of time.

     

4        4   What is the central theme of the sonnet “One day I wrote her name”?

Ans: The central theme of Spenser’s sonnet “One day I wrote her name” is the poet’s bold assertion of the supremacy of poetic art to immortalize his love. Though his lady love is sceptic about the result of his endeavour , the poet is highly optimistic that his love will survive the ravages of time.

      

     5.    What is the structure of the sonnet “One day I wrote her name”?

Ans: This sonnet is formed of three alternately rhymed quatrains and a concluding couplet. The last line every quatrain rhymes with the first line of next quatrain to achieve an effective melody. The rhyme scheme followed in the sonnet is abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee .

    6.     What variation does Spenser make to the rhyme scheme of the typical English sonnet structure in “One day I wrote her name”?

Ans: Spenser skillfully combined the typical English sonnet structure of Shakespeare with its three quatrains and a couplet pattern and the concatenated rhyme of Petrarchan  sonnets. So “One day I wrote her name” rhymes thus abab, bcbc,cdcd, ee. Last line of every quatrain rhymes with the first line of succeeding quatrain to get an effective melody.

    7.    “Our love shall live and later life renew”—How will his aspiration be successful ? OR How does Spenser defy death in “One day I wrote her name” ?

Ans: In his robust optimism, Spenser asserts the supremacy of his verse to immortalize his love. His life will survive the onslaught of time and will ever remain new to his poetry. Even if death may subdue all the world, their life will be renewed through this immortal love.

     8.    “One day I wrote her name”--Who wrote whose name ? What was the fate of writing?

Ans: In the sonnet Spenser wrote the name of his lady love on the sea beach in order to eternalize it. But the huge wave of the sea washed it away. He wrote the second time but again it suffered the same fate.

       

    9 “But came the tyde and made my payness his prey” How did the ‘tyde’ made the speaker’s ‘payness’ its prey?

Ans: Spenser’s  repeated attempts to write his lady love’s name on the sea beach and thus to preserve his love on earth are foiled by the devouring sea waves. The huge waves ,which resemble a giant animal, pounch and wash the name and thus make the poet’s effort its prey.

     10.               “Vayne man” said she “that dost in vaine assay” –Whom does ‘she’ refer to? What is ‘vaine assay’ according to her?

Ans: ‘She’ refers to the lady love of Spenser. According to her, the lover’s attempt to write his beloved’s name on the shore of the sea and thus to immortalize it is a futile effort because the devouring sea waves will instantly wash it away. So she calls the effort ‘vaine assay’.

1  11.               How would the speaker in “One day I wrote her name” make his beloved  ‘live by fanci’ ?

Ans: The beloved of Spenser was dissatisfied with him for for his futile attempt to eternalize a mortal thing. At this the poet vigorously asserts her that his verse will confer upon her an immortality in a world of decay and degeneration. Her fame would be made permanent .

1  12.               How did the poet try to immortalize the name of his beloved ?

Ans: . Spenser begins the sonnet  with a simple yet archetypal and obsessive and symbolic act on the part of a lover. One day in the presence of his beloved he wrote the name of his beloved on the sea-beach with a view  to immortalizing her name. But he very tragically found that it was washed away by the waves. He tried for the second time but again it suffered the same fate.

1    13.               Why did the beloved rebuke the poet in “One day I wrote her name”?

Ans: One day in the presence of his beloved Spenser wrote the name of his beloved twice on the sea-beach with a view  to immortalizing her name. But repeatedly and very tragically it was washed away by the waves . Seeing this, the beloved reminded him that he was trying to immortalize a mortal thing, as like her name she would also one day be wiped out from this world.

14.               How does the poet-lover answer the beloved’s questionings about his attempt at immortalizing her name? 

Ans: The speaker starts with a belief of the renaissance alchemy that baser elements naturally perish in the dust. “Baser things” i.e the earthly things are subject to decay and death. What he seeks to immortalize is not the physical beauty of the beloved, but those spiritual qualities which provide her with spiritual beauty. The poet is hopeful that his verses will be able to eternalise  the spiritual beauty of the beloved and transfigure her into a heavenly being. Thus he will be successful in preserving her name even after the world is destroyed in the Apocalypse.

Prepared By : Pulak Nath

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