Renaissance humanism

Edmund Spenser's Sonnet 75
Edmund Spenser
Sir Edmund Spenser is credited with the creation of an eponymous sonnet style, taking his place along with such luminaries as Petrarch, Shakespeare, and Milton. The Spenserian sonnet was featured in the poet's epic poem, The Faerie Queene. That style sonnet is also referred to as the Spenserian stanza when referring to his long poem.
The Spenserian sonnet features three quatrains and a couplet, as does the Shakespearean; however, the rime scheme differs slightly. While the Shakespearean sonnet's rime scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, the Spenserian features two fewer rimes with the scheme, ABAB BCBC DCDC EE.
One of Edmund Spenser's most widely anthologized sonnets is "One day I wrote her name upon the strand," number 75 in his sonnet sequence, Amoretti. In this sonnet, the speaker addresses indirectly his beloved, attempting to convince her that their love will live eternally.
(Please note: The spelling, "rhyme," was introduced into English by Dr. Samuel Johnson through an etymological error.
Sonnet 75: "One day I wrote her name upon the strand"
One day I wrote her name upon the strand;
But came the waves, and washed it away:
Again, I wrote it with a second hand;
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
Vain man, said she, that dost in vain assay
A mortal thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise.
Not so, quoth 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, when as death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.
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