Sir Philip Sidney Questions and Answers
Sir Philip Sidney
How does Sir Philip Sidney's "An Apology for Poetry" relate to Aristotle and Plato?
In Sir Philip Sidney's "Apology for Poetry," he addresses the conflict between the moral philosopher, the historian, and the poet. He subscribes to the Aristotelian view that poetry highlights...
Sir Philip Sidney
Why does Sir Philip Sidney in ' An Apology to Poetry' shed light on the creator rather than on the creation?
Sir Philip Sidney was an advocate of learning and wanted people to use every opportunity to better their understanding. In An Apology for Poetry also called Defence of Poesie, he defends the use of...
Sir Philip Sidney
How can you explain the meter in Sir Philip Sidney's poem "My True Love Hath My Heart"?
Meter is defined in scansion as the rhythm and the number of repeating patterns. A question about meter excludes structure and rhyme scheme. The meter of Sydney's "My True-Love Hath My Heart" is a...
Sir Philip Sidney
What is the explanation of the poem "My True Love Hath My Heart" by Sir Philip Sidney?
You may notice that the poem's title is preceded by the phrase "Song from Arcadia." Arcadia refers to a mythological pastoral paradise or utopia in which people live in harmony with nature. The...
Sir Philip Sidney
The features/core value of the Renaissance using "Apology for Poetry" by Sir Philip Sidney or any of his work.
Sidney's long essay Defence of Poesie encapsulates several ideas that are typical of Renaissance thinking. His primary intention seems to be of showing that the writing of poetry has some special...
Sir Philip Sidney
What is the rhyme scheme of Sir Philip Sidney's "Sonnet 31"?
In the vast majority of his sonnets, Sir Philip Sidney adheres to the so-called "Petrarchan" sonnet form, named after its Italian originator Petrarch. This type of sonnet originated the...
Sir Philip Sidney
To whom is Sir Philip Sidney's "Sonnet 31" addressed?
Sir Philip Sidney’s “Sonnet 31,” as a perfect example of apostrophe (the figure of speech in which the speaker talks to an absent person or an inanimate object), is a direct address to the moon....
Sir Philip Sidney
Sonnet 39 Sir Philip Sidney
Sonnet 31 addresses the moon in a type of personification called pathetic fallacy. Personification through pathetic fallacy is used only for nature (strict personification is used for nature,...
Sir Philip Sidney
Can you provide an analysis of "Sonnet 14" by Sir Philip Sidney? What does Sir Philip Sidney mean in his sonnet 14?
It is from Astrophel and Stella, a fictional account of a love story - which might have some relevance to Sidney himself, but that is debate-able. "Astrophel" means star (astro) and lover (phil)...
Sir Philip Sidney
Can anyone explain Sir Philip Sidney's "sonnet 37?" I found lots of information on sonnet 31 but I can't find much of...
I think I'll have a go at it...it looks like an interesting poem. You're right, though, it isn't an easy one to find analysis of: stanza 1 My mouth doth water, and my breast doth swell, My tongue...
Sir Philip Sidney
Discuss the elements of structure in any of Philip Sidney's sonnets, with mention of similarity to Petrarch's and...
Sir Philip Sidney's sonnets are collected in his sonnet cycle Astrophil and Stella, names meaning Star-Lover and Star, respectively. Sonneteers wrote a lifetime of sonnets that were unified in...
Sir Philip Sidney
Sonnet 31 Sir Philip Sidney
In Sir Philip Sidney's "Sonnet XXXI", the writer is addressing the moon. In the first two lines, he is commenting on the pale, sad appearance of the moon, and then, in the remainder of...
Sir Philip Sidney
How could one interpret the following lines in Philip Sidney's "Defence of Poesy"? a- "our tragedies and comedies not...
In the following lines taken from Sir Philip Sidney's "Defense of Poesy" (1595), he is discussing the current state of affairs in poetry and the writing of poetry. In (a), "our tragedies and...
Sir Philip Sidney
Does anyone know about "the Apology of Poetry"by Philip Sidney?
An apology in this context means a defense. And what Sir Philip's defending here is poetry. To be more specific he's defending it against those such as the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato who...
Sir Philip Sidney
"My True Love Hath My Heart" by Sir Philip Sidney is a metaphor. Explain the poem and its significance.
Sidney included this poem in his incredibly popular proto-novel, Arcadia. A shepherdess sings this to a beloved shepherd, and it is thus a beautiful pastoral interlude. The pastoral became a...
Sir Philip Sidney
What is the rhythm in Sir Philip Sidney's poem "My True Love Hath My Heart"? How can it be explained? What are the...
The rhythm, or meter, of this poem is iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is the most common meter in British poetry (especially pre-twentieth century), and it also the meter that most resembles...
Sir Philip Sidney
Who was the intended audience of Sir Philip Sidney's poetry and what political issues did he tackle?
Given the fact that in the sixteenth century, when Sidney lived and composed his poetry, it was only really the upper classes, some of the aspiring middle classes, and a select few other...
Sir Philip Sidney
Please offer an analysis of a typical poem from Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella sonnet sequence.
Sonnet 21 from Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella sonnet sequence is a highly typical poem that exemplifies many of the standard themes and techniques of the sequence as a whole. In this...
Sir Philip Sidney
Can I have a detailed analysis of the poem ''Come Sleep!'' by Sir Philip Sidney in terms of language, style, tone,...
The sonnet begins with an invocation to sleep, which is personified and given an extravagant set of titles, beginning with those that emphasize the restorative qualities of sleep and continuing to...
Sir Philip Sidney
How does language and the use of imagery present the relationship in "The Bargain"?
“The Bargain” is part of Sir Philip Sidney's pastoral romance Arcadia, and it presents a love relationship through the imagery of an exchange of hearts. Let's look at this more closely. The speaker...
Sir Philip Sidney
What is the meaning of the 8th line in "My True-love Hath My Heart" by Sir Philip Sidney?
In this poem, a female speaker describes the intense bond she feels with and for a beloved male. The poem reiterates the basic idea that the lovers have exchanged hearts: she possesses his heart...
Sir Philip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defence of Poesy, Chapter "The Poet, Poetry" summary?
In general, Sidney's defense of poetry (or poesie) was in response to attacks on poetry (namely from Stephen Gosson at the time) who claimed that "fiction-making" was morally questionable. Sidney...
Sir Philip Sidney
Does Sir Philip Sidney's poetry conform to his ideas about poetry as set forth in his "Apology for Poetry"?
In a particularly important passage of his Apology for Poetry, Sir Philip Sidney sums up a number of his most significant assumptions about poetry as an art. He speaks of poets as writers who...
Sir Philip Sidney
How can you explain the rhythm and rhyme in the Sir Philip Sidney's "My True Love Hath My Heart"
Sir Philip Sidney's poem "My True Love Hath My Heart" is written in iambic pentameter. (This is the rhythm.) This means that there are ten syllables per line, and that the stress rests on every...
Sir Philip Sidney
What is a retelling of Sonnet 31 by Sir Philip Sidney?
Sidney's Sonnet 31 is replete with clever and often humorous plays on words as wordplay is an important quality in a Renaissance courtier and writer. J.C.A. Rathmell contends that Sidney's poetry...
Sir Philip Sidney
How can you explain the stanzaic and line structure in Sir Philip Sidney's “My True Love Hath My Heart”
This poem by Philip Sidney is a sonnet, so the structure of the poem is 14 lines, and in this case, it has an Italian Sonnet structure. You can see that the first 8 lines (the octet) are broken...
Sir Philip Sidney
In Astrophil and Stella 1, 10, and 21, contrasts reason withlove is being made. Why does Sidney do that?
This is the internal conflict the speaker is experiencing. He believes he can connect with Stella if he can get her to read his writing, even if it means she does so out of pity for him. As the...
Sir Philip Sidney
How was the desire for truth expressed in and limited by social structures as expressed in the works of Sidney,...
The desire for Truth in the 16th century (1500s) was expressed in Sir Philip Sidney's poetic treatise The Defence of Poetry. In it he explains the poetical concept of mimesis, or mimetics: the art...