Sonnet 1

Happy ye leaves when as those lilly hands,

Which hold my life in their dead doing might,
Shall handle you and hold in loves soft bands,
Lyke captives trembling at the victors sight.

And happy lines, on which with starry light,

Those lamping eyes will deigne sometimes to look
And reade the sorrowes of my dying spright,
Written with teares in harts close bleeding book.

And happy rymes bath’d in the sacred brooke

Of Helicon whence she derived is,
When ye behold that Angels blessed looke,
My soules long lacked foode, my heavens blis.

Leaves, lines, and rymes, seek her to please alone,

Whom if ye please, I care for other none.

Sonnet 1 Analysis
In this sonnet, Spenser, as the first-person speaker, is focusing on the love that he has
for Elizabeth Boyle (the female to whom he frequently refers in the poem). One of the
central themes is the value of poetry.
In the first stanza, he uses the metaphor of a flower – “lilly hands” – to describe her
hands as soft and tender. The “lilly hands” echo the word “leaves,” which generally also
refers to plants or trees but in this case refers to the pages of a boot k. In the first stanza,
he is talking about things that are sweet in lines 1 and 3and contrasting it with brutal,
war-oriented images in lines 2 and 4. In line 2, the word “doing” means “killing,” and
the word “might” indicates power and strength. Similarly, “captives trembling” in line 4
implies fear and power, and the word “victor” refers to power in the context in winning.
Thus, the rhyming lines in this first stanza are in similar in both word choice and theme.
In line 5, “happy lines” again refers to poetry. In lines 5-8, Spenser wants her to read his
poetry and understand how he is suffering because of his unreturned feelings towards
her. During this stanza, he uses words with very sad connotations such as “teares” and
“bleeding” to shape his writing. Spenser continues the poetry metaphor again in line 9
with “happy rymes.”
In lines 9-10, he brings the Muses into the poem; the Muses are the goddesses of
inspiration for literature, science, and the arts, and many Elizabethan sonneteers
referred to them in their poetry. In line 10, “Helicon” indicates that he is comparing her
to the goddess who would inspire him to write literature. He continues to put her on a
pedestal, comparing her to an angel in line 11 when he says “behold that Angel’s blessed
look.” In like 12, when he says, “my soules long lacked foode, my heaven’s blis,” he is
saying he needs her to survive just as any other human being needs food to live.
In the ending couplet, he brings back the theme of writing poetry by tying the stanzas
together with the words, “leaves,” “lines,” and rhymes.” He is saying that he is writing
this poetry for her, restating his love for her in the process.

Analysis
Line 1-4
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.

Summary
The speaker narrates a scene in which he writes his beloved’s name on the beach
in these lines. But the name is lost in the waves. He tries again with a second
hand, unafraid, but the tide again overtakes his attempts

Analysis
In the lines, the speaker expresses his wish to maintain their love and leave a
lasting memory by writing the name of his lover on a strand of hair. This action
symbolizes his endeavor to immortalize his love through writing. The natural
forces of nature, however, that oppose his attempts at permanency are
symbolized by the waves and tide. The first line establishes the speaker’s
determination and desire to leave a lasting impression, and the waves stand for
life’s fleeting nature and its capacity to wash away even the most sincere
expressions. The deed is repeated with a “second hand” in the second line,
implying persistence and resoluteness. However, the tide once more gets in the
way, highlighting how change is inevitable and how it is impossible to keep
things the same. These phrases emphasize the passage of time and the
transience of all things while expressing dissatisfaction and the fleeting nature of
human existence. The speaker makes futile attempts to etch the name of his
beloved onto the strand, but in futile; this emphasizes how brief and delicate
human emotions and connections are. These lines effectively convey the idea of
love’s fleeting nature and people’s desire to make lasting memories.

Line 5-8
"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."

Summary
The beloved answers to the speaker’s unsuccessful attempts to make her name eternal in these
lines. She ignores his attempts, saying that she too would soon fade and vanish, just like her
name.

Analysis
The speaker attempts to inscribe the beloved’s name on the strand, but the beloved reacts with a
realistic and cynical viewpoint. She calls the speaker a “vain man,” meaning that his efforts to
make a mortal object eternal were in vain. She accepts the speaker’s desire to make her eternal,
but she rejects this as impractical. She also accepts that she will deteriorate and die, just like all
other mortal beings, emphasizing how inevitable death and decay are. She declares that her name
will be removed as a metaphor for that all things are temporary, including love and the people
involved. These lines offer an opposing viewpoint to the speaker’s desire for lifelong love and
immortality, implying that his or her efforts to protect and immortalize love are ultimately
ineffective because both love and the people involved are prone to deterioration and oblivion.

Lines 9-14
"Not so," (quod I) "let baser things devise

To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:

My verse your vertues 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."

Summary
The speaker rejects the beloved’s assumption that both she and her name would deteriorate and
be forgotten in these lines. He conveys his conviction that he can immortalize her virtues and
ensure that their love endures even after death through his verse.

Analysis
The speaker rejects the beloved’s claim of temporariness and decay by asserting
that “baser things” are the ones that pass away and decompose. He is adamant
that his poetry would secure her immortality and declares that his verse will
preserve all of her outstanding and rare virtues. Symbolizing the celestial zone
where her great name would be engraved, he thinks that her name will be written
in the skies. This enhances her worth and implies a transcendence above the
bounds of the earth. The speaker argues that their love will remain and renew
even after death has conquered the world and all else has perished away,
expressing their confidence that their love transcends mortality and persists
beyond physical existence. Overall, these lines demonstrate the speaker’s
determination to reject the beloved’s argument that everything is transient and
subject to fading away, viewing poetry as a way to preserve her qualities and
their love.