Sonnets are like the most majestic form of poems.

These poems were popular during the

Elizabethan era of literature – the time usually referred to as the Flowering Period of Poetry.
This form of poetry is composed of 14 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 and 6 lines. It was very
common and poets like William Shakespeare and Sir Philip Sidney greatly popularized them.
Poem

Astrophil and Stella consists of 108 sonnets and 11 songs. Here is the first sonnet . This work
of great art was published in 1591 nearly 5 years after Sir Philip Sidney’s death, the poet.
This book narrates the love story of Astrophil and Stella. Astrophil, means Star-lover, the
main character, is in love with Stella, meaning star. This first sonnet is a description of
Astrophil’s unrequited love for Stella and his longing for her attention.

Sonnet - 1

The lines 1-4 introduces to us that Astrophil is in love with a woman, and he has chosen the
medium of poetry to express his love for the woman. This lovely woman would take the
pleasure of reading his poetry which Astrophil has struggled to write. At least, by reading his
poetry, she would know of her admirer. She may take pity on him and with that little pity,
Astrophil may obtain the favour of her attention.

The lines 5-8 describes the efforts taken by Astrophil in composing this piece of poetry. He
says that he has sought the best of the words for this poem. These words cover up his state
of sadness of not being able to forget her. He has studied the most recent works of other
poets hoping to entertain her through similar art. Some of these works of other poets have
given Astrophil fresh and rich ideas on his otherwise sunburned or dry brain which is lacking
new ideas of his own.

The line 9, starts with ‘But’ indicating a twist in Astrophil’s thoughts. He expresses that he is
unable to pen his thoughts as he is feeling a writer’s block. Through the following lines, he
says that he is unable to create poetry which is unique and natural. His words are more of
an imitation of works of others and when he reads his imitated work he feels strange and
predictable.

The climaxing doublet is used to express that Astrophil is helpless with his conception of his
ideas of poetry and he has no direction to move forward. He is biting his uncooperative pen
and beating himself up just when the Muse said, “Fool, look in thy heart and write”. The
Muse is a controller of arts and sciences according to Greek Mythology. The Muse, as an
inspiration, rebukes Astrophil to follow his heart and create his own, unique work rather
than following the footsteps of others’ work.

The poem is a sonnet of 14 lines with the rhyming pattern ABAB ABAB CDCD EE. The poetic
tools used in this poem are imagery, symbolism, oxymoron and hyperbole. Imagery is used
by Sir Philip Sidney when Astrophil expresses his misery of being unable to forget the
woman from his thoughts as ‘paint the blackest face of woe’. Symbolism is a poetic device
used in this poem when he compares his natural, creative writing to his mother and the
imitation of other works of poetry to that of stepmother (step-dame). He uses oxymoron in
line 9 in the words ‘halting forth’ implying he has a writer’s block or is stuttering to speak his
thoughts. He uses hyperbole to exaggerate how his pen is not cooperating in writing his
poem of love.

Sonnet – 2

Not at the first sight, nor with a dribbed shot,

Loue gaue the wound, which, while I breathe, will bleede;
But knowne worth did in tract of time proceed,
Till by degrees, it had full conquest got.
I saw and lik'd; I lik'd but loued not;
I lou'd, but straight did not what Loue decreed:
At length, to Loues decrees I, forc'd, agreed,
Yet with repining at so partiall lot.
Now, euen that footstep of lost libertie
Is gone; and now, like slaue-borne Muscouite,
I call it praise to suffer tyrannie;
And nowe imploy the remnant of my wit
To make myselfe beleeue that all is well,
While, with a feeling skill, I paint my hell.

1. It was not love at first sight, nor on the other hand was it an
ineffectual shot with which
2. Cupid wounded me; a wound that will be with me all my life;
3. But my appreciation of her value went on by lengthy underground
excavation
4. Until gradually it had captured me completely.

5. I saw her, and liked her liked her, but did not love her;
6. Next, I loved her, but did not immediately follow all Cupid s
commandments;
7. Finally, I surrendered under compulsion to obey Cupid s laws,
8. But still regretted the one-sidedness of my fate.

9. Now even that toe-hold on my former freedom

10. Has disappeared; now like a Russian born in slavery
11. I look on loyalty to the tyrant as praiseworthy;
12. Now I use what wits I have left
13. To persuade myself that everything is normal
14. And use my sensitivity and expertise to describe the scene of my
degradation and torment.

Rhyme scheme ABBA, ABBA, CDCD, EE.

I have followed Ringler’s indentation without knowing what the MSS do,
and without really understanding it. In the first two quatrains it
follows the rhyming, but line 11 is not indented as it would be
according to the rhyme-scheme.
Line 1: Not at first sight is a deliberate breach of convention:
compare Marlowe’s Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?
Obeying the injunction of the previous sonnet, Look in thy heart and
write , implies treating the conventions with independence.

Ringler treats drib as a variant of dribble . But according to the

Shorter Oxford, drib (from drip ) is the root word (so also Onions)
and dribble the frequentative form. So examples that imply
scattering arrows about the scene are not relevant. Cupid shoots once;
one shot could have been a bad shot, but his was not. So I take the
first line as setting limits on either side: it was not instant, but
neither was it a miss.

Lines 3-4 involve a siege metaphor: an underground tunnel gradually

approaching the walls until in the end it is the means for capturing
the whole fortress.

Line 6 what Love decreed . We are tempted to interpret this in a

physically sexual sense, but that must be wrong. Courtly love was
largely (perhaps essentially?) a way of avoiding such matters. He
means he did not do all the things laid down in The Art of Love, like
undertaking the most dangerous or repellent (or ridiculous) feats in
honour of his lady. Wou t drink up eisel? Eat a crocodile?

Line 8, partial lot . The knight, in courtly love, undertook the most
extreme labours and privations, in return for which he might, or might
not, receive a single smile. His glory was in his faith, not in any
reward; hers was in the number and ardency of her admirers, all the
more honourable because unbribed. A court was a hotbed of repressed
sexuality, crowded with people aged 13 to 30, of both sexes in roughly
equal numbers. The convention partly sublimated this and partly (no
doubt) cloaked it.

Line 10, Muscovite . The absoluteness of the Tsars, and the universal
acceptance of it, was a surprise to English visitors. And moreover,
if there be any rich man amongst them, who in his owne person is unfit
for the warres, that thereby many Noble men and warriors might be
maintained, if any of the Courtiers present his name to the Emperour,
the unhappy man is by and by sent for, and in that instant, deprived
of all his riches, which with great paines and travell all his life
time he had gotten together: except perhaps some small portion thereof
be left him, to maintaine his wife, children and familie. But all this
is done of all the people so willingly at the Emperours commandement,
that a man would thinke, they rather make restitution of other men s
goods, then give that which is their owne to other men. Nowe the
Emperour having taken these goods into his hands, bestoweth them among
his Courtiers, according to their deserts: and oftener that a man is
sent to the warres, the more the favour he thinketh is borne to him by
the Emperour, although he goe upon his owne charge, as I said before.
So great is the obedience of all men generally to their Prince.
(Hakluyt s Voyages, Willoughby and Chancellor, 1553. The expedition
was set up by the London merchants; hence a certain slant towards
commercial property and interests.)

Willoughby was lost at `sea and Richard Chancellor did the business.
On the selection of Chancellor as one of the officers: This man was
brought up by one Master Henry Sidney, a noble young Gentleman and
very much beloved of King Edward, who at this time coming to the
place where the Merchants were gathered together, began a very
eloquent speech or Oration. This must have been Philip’s father,
later Sir Henry, Lord President of the Marches of Wales and three
times Lord Deputy of Ireland.

Overall, this is a lovely sonnet which introduces how the main character, Astrophil, is about
to write his love story for his lover, Stella. The sonnet tells about Astrophil’s motive, efforts,
troubles and inspiration to write this book of love.