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   maldoror Student
   College - Senior

   Sir Philip Sidney's first sonnet speaks of how he is willing to show, in his verse, that the love he feels for Stella is painful.  He wants to write his poem so beautifully that Penelope (the Stella of his sonnets), who is wife of Robert Devereux, will enjoy reading it.  Through the act of enjoying reading the poem, Sidney believes that she will come to realize his true feelings for her.

   He hopes that once she knows, she will feel sorry for him.  He writes of how he has been seeking the right words to write.  He has studied the finest poetry in hopes of learning how to engage her wit.  He is looking for inspiration in other poems, hoping to find "fruitful showers upon my sunburnt brain."

   The words will not come easily to Sidney.  Invention will not come to him.  His muse remains silent.  When he writes, "And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way" he is speaking of the metrical feet of other poetry's rhyme schemes.  He realizes that he is blocking himself from truly expressing what he feels by studying the poetry written by others.  He feels as if he is pregnant with his desire to write what he wants to say.  He bites his pen, hits himself, and finally his Muse speaks to him.  His Muse tells him to look into what his heart feels and to write that down.

   Most of Sidney's sonnets have a direct reference to "Stella" in the final lines.  This one does not, but it is generally acknowledged that Stella (Penelope) is the woman he is speaking about.

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   Posted by maldoror on Saturday May 9, 2009 at 11:12 AM