One day I wrote her name upon the strand

Right from the title the reader may expect the sonnet to be about a record of a memory. Such expectation is created by “one day” plus the simple past tense, conveying the idea of something finished. The using of the first pronoun I adds a lyrical dimension to the text. Besides the possessive adjective her underlines the present of girl in the sonneteer mind.

Taking into consideration the lay-out an intelligent reader can immediately understand that the text is a sonnet  written according to the Petrarchan model because it consists of an octave and a sestet. The function of the first octave is to introduce the situation: a man who is remembering himself when he was writing probably his lover’s name on the beach, but the words had always been erased by the waves. Instead in the sestet the speaking voice makes an abstract comment about love and life and he concludes saying that when he and his lady die, their love will live forever. He says this, because he had written about their love and the lady’s virtues in his verse and poetry is immortal, scripta manent, verba volant. So the theme of the immortalising power of poetry, a typical theme of the courtly love, comes on surface.  In the text there is a reported speech introduced by sayd she, so an intelligent reader can understand that there are two different point of view: the first one is that of the man who thinks that mortal things can last, while the second one is that of a women who says that mortal things cannot last.

Within the text there are two semantic fields, the once of love (her name, immortalize, heavens glorious) and the one of nature (tyde, strand) creating a comparison between the heaven eternal love and the terrestrial things. The sonnet in particular underlines how love cannot be eternal on the Earth. As a matter of fact the speaking voice couldn’t write the lover’s name on the strand. Taking into consideration the phonological aspect the poet uses a lot of sound devices. The long vowel sound “o” seems to surround the whole sonnet, creating an idea of vastity. In addiction there are different rhymes highlighting the love theme. You can find fame-name that creates an image of solemnity in the reader. What’s more the poet exploits the power of rhetorical devices. For example he used the reported speech giving more credibility to the text(she said).