Sir Philip Sidney – Page 2 – Interesting Literature

A Short Analysis of Sir Philip Sidney’s Sonnet 71: ‘Who will in fairest book of nature know’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Astrophil and Stella is one of Elizabethan poetry’s finest achievements. In 108 sonnets and a handful of songs, Sir Philip Sidney produced the first sustained sonnet sequence in English (though not, contrary to popular belief, the very first). Sonnet 71, beginning ‘Who will in fairest book of nature know / How virtue may best lodged in beauty be’, is one of the best-known poems from the latter half of the sequence (many of the ‘greatest hits’ in Astrophil and Stella are found in the first forty or so sonnets). Here is Sonnet 71, along with some notes towards an analysis of this intriguing and deftly crafted poem.

Who will in fairest book of Nature know
How virtue may best lodged in beauty be,
Let him but learn of love to read in thee,
Stella, those fair lines which true goodness show.
There shall he find all vices’ overthrow,
Not by rude force, but sweetest sovereignty
Of reason, from whose light those night-birds fly;
That inward sun in thine eyes shineth so.
And not content to be perfection’s heir
Thyself, dost strive all minds that way to move,
Who mark in thee what is in thee most fair;
So while thy beauty draws the heart to love,
As fast thy virtue bends that love to good.
But, ah, Desire still cries: ‘Give me some food.’

A Short Analysis of Sir Philip Sidney’s Sonnet 39: ‘Come sleep, O sleep’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Astrophil and Stella is one of Elizabethan poetry’s finest and brightest gems. In 108 sonnets and a handful of songs, Sir Philip Sidney produced the first sustained sonnet sequence in English (though not, contrary to popular belief, the very first). Sonnet 39, beginning ‘Come sleep, O sleep, the certain knot of peace’, is one of the most widely anthologised poems in the sequence – and this analysis is going to attempt to explain why it remains so popular.

A Short Analysis of Sir Philip Sidney’s ‘My True Love Hath My Heart’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86) was a Renaissance man: an Elizabethan soldier, statesman, and poet, who also wrote one of the first long works of prose fiction (some say one of the first novels) in English literature. But he is chiefly remembered now for his poetry, and ‘My true love hath my heart, and I have his’ is one of his most widely anthologised love poems. What follows is a brief summary and analysis of the poem.

My true love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange one for the other given:
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss;
There never was a bargain better driven.
His heart in me keeps me and him in one;
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:

A Short Analysis of Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella 31: ‘With how sad steps, O moon’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Sonnet 31 from Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella (sometimes Astrophel and Stella), which begins with the line ‘With how sad steps, O moon, thou climb’st the skies’, is one of the most famous poems in the entire sonnet sequence.

Astrophil and Stella was the first substantial sonnet sequence composed in English, in the early 1580s. Sidney (1554-86) was inspired by his unrequited love for Penelope Rich (nee Devereux), who was offered to him as a potential wife a few years before. Sidney turned her down, she married Lord Robert Rich, and Sidney promptly realised he was in love with her.

A Short Analysis of Sir Philip Sidney’s ‘Loving in Truth’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86) is often credited with writing the first sonnet sequence in English, and he was certainly the first English poet to write a long cycle of sonnets.