sonnets are such an important form in the Renaissance and Elizabethan period, we can look at "Sonnet 75" and see what qualities line up with the expectations for Renaissance sonnets.

The first stanza of Spenser's "Sonnet 75" reads,

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I write it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey (1-4).

Here, Spenser is saying that he tried to write his beloved's name on the beach's sand, but the waves kept erasing her name. The tide also terrorized his attempts, making his written word "his prey." The rhyme scheme here is ABAB, and the meter is iambic pentameter, which is typical of Renaissance sonnets. The use of personification and imagery similarly line up with poetry of this period. Finally, Spenser's attempt to immortalize his love is a common theme in Renaissance literature and in sonnets.

The next stanza continues,

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 (5-8).

Here, Spenser's beloved begins to comment on his attempt. Instead of appreciating the gesture, she calls him "vain" and says that his efforts are pointless. She tells him that something that is "mortal" cannot be made immortal in this way. She will die, and her name will disappear from memory. Here, Spenser uses repetition and word play with the double meaning on "vain" in line 5. The contrast of "mortal" and "immortalize" likewise show his deft control of language. The stanza brings us a new angle on a common theme introduced in stanza 1: the poet's struggle to make immortal his love and his writing.

In the final quatrain, Spenser replies,

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 (9-12).

Spenser's response is to characterize their love as better than most mortal things, which he calls "baser." He assures his beloved that he will immortalize her in his "verse" or poetry. In this way, her name and their love story will live forever "in the heavens." This romantic notion brings the theme to its ideal end: even though their mortal lives will end, their love will continue as we continue to read the poems about their love to this day.

The final couplet closes the sonnet by saying,

Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew (13-14).

The summation, which we typically see in the couplet of a Renaissance sonnet, restates the poem's theme, which is that their love will live on while other things die. Again, this occurs throughout the poem itself, which can be read even after the mortal beings described in it have long since passed away.

The sonnet embodies the features we expect in this form of poetry, which was at its height in the Renaissance and the Elizabethan period. The form and its themes exemplify the elements of sonnets in this time.