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 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 (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,

Out love shall live, and later life renew.

Reading the title you expect the poet talks about a girl, whose name he wrote on the seaside (past memory).

The poem is arranged in an octave and a sestet (rhythm scheme abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee).

In the first a quatrain the poet describes a normal incident happened near seaside. He writes a girl’s name in the sand, but the waves washed it away.

In the next quatrain a woman (probably the one cited sooner) starts talking to the poet defining him “vain man”. She explains her words saying that is impossible make immortal humans as he tries to do with her.

In the next quatrain the poet answers her that she would live forever by fame thanks to his sonnets, not like mortal things.The final couplet at the end summarizes the theme of the poem: the eternalness of love and the caducity of life.

In the first lines the phonological level suggests the idea of:

1) Vastness brought by long vowel sounds (wrote her name upon ,waves and washed…).

2) Repeated pain feeling brought by the alliterations and assonances ( waves and washed it away).

In the 2nd quatrain the strong change of the semantical sphere introduces the new character and topic.

In this part also, the poet uses assonances and repetitions (Vain man in vain assay, mortal thing so to immortalize, wiped out likewise...) that give more weight to the lines.

In fact Spenser uses the first 2 quatrains to create a contrast between ephemeral and eternal things.

The last quatrain is similar (phonologically) to the first and the second one: repetitions and alliterations

(My verse your vertues…).

In the couplet you could see a change.

The first line of the final couplet, contrasts the second one semantically and phonetically.

In fact in the sounds are completely different, hard in the first one (Where whenas Death),line which talks about the ephemeral things , soft in the second one ( Out love shall live)which is about immortality.

This makes an ulterior sense of contrast.

Personal opinion

In this sonnet Spenserreminds the reader of the caducity of our life but, differently from the common people, he tries to challenge death and make  his love immortal. So he tries to communicate that love will never die.