"Amoretti: One day I wrote her name upon the strand" by Edmund Spenser (poetry reading)

Amoretti, in painting, are plump naked little boys reprenting Eros or Cupid. Here it means small tokens of love. The poem was written in 1594, one of a series called Amoretti. You can read the others here:
http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/spenser1.html

You can read about Edmund Spencer and find his other works here:
http://reference.findtarget.com/search/Edmund%20Spenser/

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I write it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize,
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eek my name be wiped out likewise.
Not so, (quod I) let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse, your virtues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.


"Writing on Sand was by Dante Gabrielle Rossetti
Hilda pin-up from the 50's by Duane Bryers:
http://www.pollsb.com/polls/p11804-duane_bryers_painted_hilda_pin_ups_back_50

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Amoretti
• Edmund
• Spenser
• Cupid
• Eros
• Sand
• Writing

[scifiwritir]

But what was her name? ;-) Thanks for the upload.

[SpokenVerse]

@scifiwritir I should have said. It was Elizabeth. He wrote 89 of these sonnets - amoretti - to her during courtship. I'll put a link to them all in the notes.

[ETKSyiemiong]

Can't believe someone can love his lady so much:It all clearly shows in Spencer's beautiful emotions towards Elizabeth all expressed in Amoretti and Epithalamion:):)....

[SpokenVerse]

@numbersabcdefg There's delight in a succinct phrase.