Here's the sonnet:
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Agayne I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray.
5 Vayne man, sayd she, that doest in vaine assay,
A mortall thing so to immortalize,
For I my selve shall lyke to this decay,
And eek my name bee wyped out lykewize.
Not so, (quod I) let baser things devize
10 To dy in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the hevens wryte your glorious name.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.
Question; the speaker in this sonnet is mocked by the ocean for trying to do what? What is the speakers final conclusion on the situation?
Thanks for helping, if you can :P
1 -- what happens in lines 2 and 4?
2 -- what is he saying in the last 4 lines?
In lines 2 and 4, the waves washed his Beloved's name away, and he's obviously in love with this girl, so he thinks that love triumphs over death. And the tyde charges him with vanity.
In the last four lines, he's saying that our love shall forever live on, and later in live renew it's self, love triumphs over death.
Right?
She is the one who calls him vain. The ocean simply lets him know that nothing lasts in the sand.
Also, that his poem will memorialize her forever. His poem isn't written in sand!
In this sonnet, the speaker is mocked by the ocean for trying to immortalize someone's name on the shore. The speaker writes the name on the strand, but the waves wash it away. Undeterred, the speaker writes it again with a second hand, but once again, the tide comes and erases it. At this point, the person being addressed by the speaker (referred to as "she" in the poem) tells the speaker that it is futile to try to immortalize something mortal. She says that both she and her name will eventually decay and be forgotten.
However, the speaker disagrees and responds that it is baser things that should die in dust, not her. The speaker believes that through his verse, he can immortalize her virtues and write her glorious name in the heavens. The speaker concludes that even when death conquers the world, their love will live on and bring about the renewal of life.