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Sonnet 75 Analysis

So maybe I'm not exactly the  best at interpreting poems, but I'll give it my best shot...

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 doest 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,

Out love shall live, and later life renew.

What I think this means, is that sometimes something will be remembered for a short period of time, before being forgotten. Sometimes you may be famous, but then as the years pass you are forgotten. Think of all those One Hit Wonders. Spenser is writing a women's name he most likely loves in the sand, but it is washed away by the tide. The tide symbolizes how the women feels, when Spenser says "and eek my name be wiped out likewise" means they'll probably both forget about each other. But Spenser wants something  immortal that won't be erased. When he says "but you shall live by fame" and "in the heavens write your glorious name" he is saying that she won't be forgotten to him even though she'll probably move on.