One Day I Wrote Her Name

Listen to:

Sonnet 75 (1:03)

by Edmund Spenser

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washéd 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 eek my name be wipéd 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, whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.

Rhapsodize - Reviving the Role of the Rhapsode

Rhapsodize Audio Catalog

Rhapsodize Central

Rhapsodize Vision and Mission