Wedding reading
Sonnet 75
Edmund Spenser
“Sonnet 75” by Edmund Spenser is a poem read at a wedding ceremony. It takes about a minute and a half read aloud, usually by a guest reader. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
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 eke my name be wiped out likewise." "Not so," quod 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."
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
Where it comes from
The poem is sonnet 75 of Amoretti, Edmund Spenser’s sonnet sequence.
What it says
A man writes his beloved’s name in the sand, and the waves wash it away. He writes it again and the tide takes it again. She laughs at him: it is vain to try to make a mortal thing last, because she too will fade, and her name will be wiped out just like the writing on the beach. He disagrees. Let lesser things die in the dust; she will live on through his poetry, which will write her name in the heavens. When death has conquered the whole world, their love will still be alive and will begin again. The poem is a small story with a quarrel at its center, and she gets the better lines before he answers her.
"One day I wrote her name upon the strand." She gets the better of him halfway through. Read at a wedding ceremony. Themes: the beach · writing a name in sand · outlasting death · a seaside wedding.
Who it suits
Beach and seaside weddings, lakeside ceremonies, and couples who met by the water. It suits a couple who like a reading with a little humor and dialogue in it, and those who enjoy that the bride has the sharper wit. Its ending reaches toward eternity, so it fits a religious ceremony as well as a civil one.
Where it goes in the ceremony
A good main reading before the vows, especially outdoors. A friend or family member reads it; because the poem has two speakers, a confident reader can mark the voices, or two readers can take a part each, one reading the narration and his reply, the other reading her lines.
Reading it aloud
The text on this page is 115 words. At a ceremony pace of about 130 words a minute, which is slower than conversation, that comes to about 55 seconds of reading.
- The first quatrain is narration. Keep it plain and a little rueful.
- Her speech, from “Vain man” to “wiped out likewise”, is teasing. Read it with some lightness, not as a lament.
- “Not so,” quod I is the turn. “Quod” is the old word for “said”; read it as written.
- Slow down for the final couplet about death subduing the world. It is the promise the whole poem has been building toward.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “Sonnet 75” take to read aloud?
“Sonnet 75” takes about a minute and a half read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “Sonnet 75”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “Sonnet 75” runs about a minute and a half, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.
Can “Sonnet 75” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — and the timing that holds them together. Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole ceremony, written out, with this reading in its place.
Other readings that suit the same service
- Sonnet 1855 secondsShakespeare’s version of the same promise that verse will outlast time
- Song of Solomon 8:6–735 secondsScripture on love that is strong as death
- from Song of the Open Road25 secondsA short invitation for an outdoor ceremony
- Sonnet 116a minute and a halfWilliam Shakespeare
- Sonnet 43a minute and a halfElizabeth Barrett Browning
- A Red, Red Rose45 secondsRobert Burns