Lines 1-8 Summary

Lines 1-2

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washéd it away: 

• Okay guys, let's jump on in. The poem begins by setting the scene: the speaker (the "I") of the poem is at the strand with his gal pal. The strand, in case you are not up on Spenser's lingo, is another name for the shore—you know, the sandy part of the beach. 
• So the speaker and his beloved are chilling at the beach, and he decides to get all romantic and write her name in the sand. Aw, cuteness. 
• But then the waves wash away her name—sadness. 
• Before we move on, let's just take note of the poem's form. We know from the title that it's a sonnet (what's up, 14-line poem) but we're not so sure about the rhyme scheme yet. There's no rhyming going on in these lines. 
• You might also want to note that the poem has ten-syllable lines, which should put you on iambic pentameter alert. 
• Surprise, surprise. These lines are actually written in perfect iambic pentameter. Spenser even lets us know that we should pronounce "washed" with two syllables (that's what the accent mark means): as "washed," to preserve the poem's perfect iambic rhythm. Dude was a stickler about iambic pentameter. (For more on the poem's rhythm, check out the "Form and Meter" section.)

Lines 3-4

Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. 

• Our speaker is pretty intrepid. He writes his girlfriend's name in the sand again—in the words of the poem, "with a second hand."
• And then, uh-oh, the tide comes in and washes her name away again. The beach is just downright cruel. 
• Let's take note of the speaker's diction (or word choice) here. He refers to his writing as "his pains," and this language seems to suggest that writing—even just the writing of his beloved's name in the sand—is hard work. 
• The speaker also makes a metaphor; he refers to his writing as the "prey" of the waves. He basically imagines that the waves are like a mean ol' predator, just waiting to pounce on his poor defenseless writing. A little dramatic, dontcha think? The speaker's got a flair for the dramatic (or, we might even say, a flair for the poetic) if you ask us. 
• And one more thing: we've got some rhyming going on. "Strand" (1) and "hand" (3) rhyme, as do "away" (2) and "prey" (4).
• This is a basic ABAB rhyme (where the letter stands for that line's end rhyme).

Lines 5-6

"Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize; 

• Look out, it's dialogue. It's not too often that dialogue shows up in a sonnet, as sonnets are pretty short poems. But we find it pretty snazzy that Spenser included some speech in "Sonnet 75."
• Now, don't be afraid of this dialogue just because the beloved uses old-school words like "dost." We'll translate for you. She basically says, "Hey speaker: you're vain (i.e., full of yourself) and your assay (or attempt) to preserve (immortalize) my name (a mortal thing) in the sand is silly (in vain)." Got it? 
• She's telling him that his gesture will never work, that he's being proud in thinking that his writing is more powerful than the forces of nature. He's trying in vain—or uselessly—to make her name immortal, when in fact it's mortal (it will die). 
• Note that the speaker's lady-friend is using the word "vain" twice in one line; she knows this word has multiple meanings, and she's drawing on both of them. We've got a smart chick on our hands in this poem. 
• And when we stop to think about it, this dialogue is pretty cool, since we get to have the direct perspective of someone other than the speaker in the poem. It's pretty rare for multiple points of view to find their way into short poems like sonnets, especially back in Spenser's day.
• And before we move on, let's just make one more note: there's more perfect iambic pentameter here, and an interesting twist to the rhyme. The first lines of the poem had an ABAB rhyme scheme, and these lines continue the B rhyme—"assay" rhymes with "prey" and "away," and introduces another rhyme (the C rhyme) with the word "immortalize." Stay tuned for the word that rhymes with "immortalize"…

Lines 7-8

For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise." 

• These lines are the continuation of the beloved's speech. She says that she, too, will decay and disappear, just as her name has disappeared from the beach. She, too, will be "wiped out."
• Is the speaker's lady-friend being all perverse and morbid here? Or is she just telling the truth? That one day, we'll all be "wiped out" by death? What do you think?
• Oh and p.s., in Spenser's day, the word "eke" meant "also." It's one of those words that has been wiped out by the waves of time. 
• So to summarize, the beloved thinks that the speaker is being a little silly by continually writing her name in the sand, and she recognizes that, like her name, she won't live forever. 
• And now let's think about form for a second. We've got enough of the poem that we can see the rhyming pattern appear: ABAB BCBC. And (poetry spoiler alert) this pattern will continue throughout the poem. This rhyme scheme, is what makes the "Spenserian sonnet"… Spenserian. It was Spenser's innovation to the form. Nice work, Edmund.