Sonnet 5 of Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella sonnet sequence is one of the most important sonnets of the entire collection.

The rhyme scheme of the sonnet seems to be as follows: abab baba cdcd ee. Alternately, the rhyme scheme could be read as follows: abab bcbc dede ff. Both of these two possible rhyme schemes differ from the standard rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet, which is as follows: abbaabba, cdecde (or some other variation in the last six lines). Meanwhile, a Shakespearean sonnet rhymes as follows: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. In other words, a Petrarchan sonnet consists of eight lines (the octet) followed by six lines (the sestet). A Shakespearean sonnet consists of three groups of four lines (called “quatrains”) and a final couplet. Sidney’s sonnet, then, is neither a strict Petrarchan sonnet nor a strict Shakespearean sonnet but contains elements of both, including a recognizable octet and a final couplet.

Sidney uses the structure of this poem to reinforce its meanings in a number of different ways.  For example, lines 1 and 5 begin with Astrophil admitting standard Christian truths of the period: that the senses should serve the mind or soul; that the mind or soul ought to rule human conduct; and that people who reject such rule are unnatural rebels who are seeking their own pain (1-4). The next four lines (5-8) clearly parallel the first four in structure and in meaning: Astrophil admits that he knows that selfish desire (symbolized by Cupid) is a form of idolatry, and he shows that he understands that such idolatry can harm both the body (the “church”) and the soul (the “churchman”) of the idolator. Lines 9-11 repeat this pattern in a slightly shorter and altered form; these lines show Astrophil conceding that true beauty is virtue (not physical attractiveness); that earthly beauty can only be a dim reflection of spiritual beauty; and that physical beauty is inevitably mutable because it is mostly material. In lines 12-13, Astrophil makes yet another specific admission: he shows that he realizes that all human beings are merely “pilgrims” (12) who were created by God in order to seek their heavenly home. Finally, in line 14, Astrophil does what he does in so many other sonnets (such as 18 and 21, to name just two): he reverses and undercuts the whole earlier thrust of the sonnet. In this case, he admits that everything he has just said is “true,” and yet he insists that in spite of all this truth, he “must Stella love” (14).

Sidney thus uses the highly repetitive phrasing of the first thirteen lines (with their emphasis on standard truths) to emphasize the startling irony of the end of the poem: Astrophil knows what the truth is, but he insists instead on following his own contradictory version of the truth, which is not true at all. The structure of the sonnet thus makes Astrophil seem either hopelessly obsessed or willfully rebellious.  He proves himself, at the very end of the work, to be one of those “Rebels to Nature” whom he had earlier condemned (4). The structure of this poem, in which Astrophil repeatedly admits that he knows right from wrong, makes his final insistence on pursuing a wrong course seem all the more blameworthy. The first thirteen lines show that he is capable of understanding truth as it was taught in his day; the final line shows that he nevertheless rejects that truth in order to pursue his “love” (really his selfish desire) for Stella.