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, 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.

This is from a sonnet series by Edmund Spenser.  The sonnet is a poem with fourteen lines.  The lines are in iambic pentameter, and he rhyme scheme is variable.  In this poem, Spenser follows the following rhyme scheme:
 

ABAB BCBC CDCD EE

The theme of the poem is tempus fugit, "time flies."  This theme is related to one we've seen before, carpe diem. Carpe diem because tempus fugit. Sieze the day because time flies.

1-4  The first four lines go together.  He attempts to write his love's name on the sand, but the waves keep washing is away.

5-8 She compares herself to the name in the sand.  Like it, she herself will soon be blotted out.  He can't make something mortal into something immortal.

9-12  He protests that other things may pass away (die in dust), but that her "glorious name" will live in the heavens because of his poem.

13-14  Even when the world ends, their love won't.

Did you notice that for all his boasting about making her immortal in this poem, that he somehow forgot to include her name? He did, however, remember to sign it with his name. Sic transit gloria mundi (thus passes the glory of the world).