How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
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. (1-4)
The beginning of the poem seems almost anti-immortality; the speaker writes his beloved's name in the sand, but the waves keep washing it away. Nothing lasts forever, dude, says the ocean. The circle of life moves us all.
Quote #2
"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." (5-8)
The beloved is on the same page as the ocean. She seems to be a pretty level-headed lady. She knows she's gonna die one day. She knows she won't live forever and ever. So she's okay with the fact that the waves have washed away her name. This is what we call acceptance.
Quote #3
"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: (9-12)
Ah, speaker. If his gal pal is a realist, he's a total romantic. She's better than those "baser things" which, you know, die. She's gonna live forever. And how, you might ask, will that happen? Why, the speaker's poetry will take on the job of granting immortality. And there's alliteration all over the lines of this poem, so we're pretty sure that the speaker's trying to communicate just how much poetry mojo he's got. He's really calling attention to the poetry skills in these lines.