Concetti Chiave
- The narrator attempts to immortalize a loved one's name by writing it on the sand, but the waves wash it away.
- The loved one argues that trying to immortalize something mortal is futile, as everything decays over time.
- The narrator counters by stating that while lesser things may die, the loved one's virtues will live on through poetry.
- The poem suggests that love and virtue can achieve a form of immortality through artistic expression.
- The narrator believes that their love will endure beyond death, renewing life and transcending mortal limitations.
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 dost 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,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.
A Day at the Beach
Un giorno scrissi il suo nome sulla spiaggia, ma vennero le onde e lo cancellarono lontano: di nuovo io scrissi quello con una seconda mano, ma arrivò la marea e distrusse il mio lavoro. 
Uomo inutile, disse lei, cerchi di rendere immortale una cosa mortale, per me desidero la mia umiliazione perché questo venga meno e anche il mio nome possa essere spazzato via come cose umane. Non così, dissi, si preparino le cose lasciate più indegne per morire nella polvere, ma vivrai in eterno. La mia poesia farà durare in eterno le tue virtù e nei cieli scriverà il tuo glorioso nome. Quando la mrte sottometterà tutto il mondo, il nostro amore vivrà e più tardi la vita si rinnovarà.
Domande da interrogazione
- What is the central theme of the poem?
- What is the beloved's perspective on the speaker's efforts to immortalize her?
The central theme of the poem is the desire to immortalize love and virtue through poetry, despite the inevitable decay of mortal things.
The beloved views the speaker's efforts as vain, believing that mortal things, including herself, are destined to decay and be forgotten, much like her name written on the sand being washed away by the waves.
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