Astrophil and Stella Sonnet 1 Loving in Truth Analysis

Astrophil and Stella is a sequence of sonnets and songs written by Sir Philip Sidney .It is comprised of 108 sonnets and 11 songs It tells the story of Astrophil (or Astrophel), whose name means star-lover, and his hopeless passion for Stella, whose name means star. Stella is quite definitely identified with Penelope (there are puns on her husband’s suggestive name), and if the sonnets are autobiographical beyond that (always a tricky assumption), they suggest that Sidney tried to persuade her to become his mistress, and she stoutly refused, in spite of her clear and continuing affection for him. It is conventional to refer to
“the speaker” in discussing a lyric poem, since the speaker and the poet are not necessarily the same. But in these poems the “speaker” is pretty reliably the Philip Sidney who is in love with Penelope Devereux Rich. Sidney’s sonnets may lack the depth of thought and emotion captured almost uniquely by Shakespeare in his sonnets, but they are perfect little gems of craft built around fairly conventional ideas.

The Sonnet is invoked with the muse at the end. According to the Greek Mythology, the nine Muses had control over the Arts and Sciences and they provide inspiration in these areas of subject. The nine muses include Calliope (muse of epic poetry), Clio (muse of history), Erato (muse of love poetry), Euterpe (muse of music), Melpomene (muse of tragedy), Polyhymnia (muse of sacred poetry), Terpsichore (muse of dance), Thalia (muse of comedy), and Urania (muse of astronomy). In the sonnet the muse that the narrator is looking to for inspiration is Erato, the muse of love poetry. As the narrator looks for ways and things to say to his lover in order to win her love, he forgets his true essence of being a writer. In the last line, ” ‘Fool,” said my muse to me, look in thy heart and write ” where the Erato muse is asking the narrator to write the love poem from his heart and not look for any inspiration from anywhere else.

The sonnet is written in a tradition form of Petrarchan style which is divided into an octave and a sestet. In the Octave of eight lines , the sonnet clearly address Astrophil’s appraisal towards Stella which he believes that the act of writing will make her fall in love with him and seduced her. The lyrical voice expresses his wish to transmit his love in his writing “Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show”. The lyrical voice’s reflection about writing enables him to make a love sonnet. Nevertheless, the lyrical voice’s writing shows that he knows that he will never win Stella’s love “That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,/Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know” but can’t help but desire her and express his love to her “Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain”. The lyrical voice believes that Stella will read his writings and become deeply acquainted with his love, and if she pities him, he will win the “grace” of her attention. This clash between passion and reason will be present in this sonnet and in the entire sequence.

Moreover, the lyrical voice is concerned with how he expresses his emotions. The metatextuality that the lyrical voice introduces by talking about his own writing. He thinks that he has made a mistake by looking at other’s writings “Studying inventions fine” and trying to emulate them to express “the blackest face of woe”. He thought that this could
serve as inspiration: “Oft turning others’ leaves, to see if thence would flow/Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburned brain”.

Traditionally, the volta or the turn starts in the opening of the sestet itself and in this sonnet the volta turns highlighting that the words came “halting” towards his mind when read the works of other great literary productions. He is in fact talking about the metatextuality where the works of other great poets and literary writers input is stress upon for inspiration but seems a bit strange to fit with the mind he wants to translates. As a child or the beginning of his writing begins to stop or he was stuttering to fit the ideas into words. He invokes the muse of Erato who tells him to write poem from his heart rather than relying on other writers for inspiration which the ending couplet suggests.