To view more poems I have examined, click HERE.
SONNET 1
by Sir Philip Sydney
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,—
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe,
Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain,
Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburned brain.
But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay:
Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows,
And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way.
Thus great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:
"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart and write."
This sonnet is Syndey's explanation of the writing process. Often words are best put together when their origin point is the heart and not the mind. I have had many conversations with writers about their work, and all too often I am told something along the lines of, "I don't know where that came from, it just sort of poured out of me." It seems to me that poetry in particular comes from the heart and then is shaped and made more clever by the intellect after it emerges.
Sir Philip Sydney is an important figure in English literature. via wiki:
Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. His works include a sonnet sequence, Astrophel and Stella, a treatise, The Defence of Poesy (also known as The Defence of Poesie or An Apology for Poetrie) and a pastoral romance, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia.
[...]
Like the best of the Elizabethans, Sidney was successful in more than one branch of literature, but none of his work was published during his lifetime. His finest achievement was a sequence of 108 love sonnets. These owe much to Petrarch and Pierre de Ronsard in tone and style, and place Sidney as the greatest Elizabethan sonneteer after Shakespeare. Written to his mistress, Lady Penelope Rich, though dedicated to his wife, they reveal true lyric emotion couched in a language delicately archaic. In form Sidney usually adopts the Petrarchan octave (ABBAABBA), with variations in the sestet that include the English final couplet. His artistic contacts were more peaceful and significant for his lasting fame. During his absence from court, he wrote Astrophel and Stella (1591) and the first draft of The Arcadia and The Defence of Poesy. His pastoral romance The Arcadia (1598) is an intricate love story, embodying the ideals of the medieval chivalry, so congenial to Sidney's own spirit. The story is diffused and involved, and the many secondary love stories interwoven with the main one distract attention. The characters are vague and idealized. The style, in its strength and its weaknesses, is that of a poet writing prose; melodious, picturesque, rather artificial and ornamental. The story contains a number of fine lyrics. Somewhat earlier, he had met Edmund Spenser, who dedicated The Shepheardes Calender to him. Other literary contacts included membership, along with his friends and fellow poets Fulke Greville, Edward Dyer, Edmund Spenser and Gabriel Harvey, of the (possibly fictitious) "Areopagus", a humanist endeavour to classicise English verse.
Sonnet 1 is the first sonnet from Sydney's sonnet sequence, Astrophil and Stella, which is itself sometimes credited as the first sonnet sequence of the English language. From udel.edu/:
The phrase "Elizabethan sonnet sequences" refers to the series of English sonnets written by various prominent practitioners in the Elizabethan era, such as William Shakespeare, Sir Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser. Shakespeare's sonnet sequence includes 154 sonnets. Spenser's main sonnet series is a collection entitled Amoretti and Sidney's most famous sonnet series is entitled Astrophil and Stella.
The English sonnet sequence became a phenomenon around 1580 and remained a major literary and cultural influence until around 1610. Many credit Sidney's Astrophil and Stella as the first true sequence. In 1619, Drayton completed his final revision of his famous sequence Idea, which historically marked the end of the phenomenon. The impact of the sonnet and sonnet sequence was seen everywhere during this time. Writers like John Donne insisted that only fools could not write sonnets. Queen Elizabeth was also known to use the language of sonnets while conducting foreign policy.
Sonnet 1 is written 14 lines, in iambic pentameter, and with a rhyme scheme of ABAB ABAB CDCDEE. The first eight lines are the octet while the last six are the sestet.
The Octet:
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,—
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe,
Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain,
Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburned brain.
It is helpful to know that this piece is the first of a sequence. The Speaker is introducing not only this sonnet, but also the entire sequence. Line 1 lets us know that the Speaker (Astrophil) is in love (with Stella) and desires to demonstrate that love in verse. The rest of the octet is a description of the Speaker's schemes for how to accomplish this task.
The hope is that Stella will read his words, become aware of his love, and then pity him enough to return his affections. The poet is concerned with how to express his feelings throughout. This process is very cerebral, with the poet considering how he might paint himself with "the blackest face of woe," and also how to entertain her wits. He tells us in lines seven and eight that he has poured over the pages (leaves) of the writing of others in the hope that this might produce "fresh and fruitful showers" (ideas).
The Sestet:
But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay:
Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows,
And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way.
Thus great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:
"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart and write."
The volta/turn occurs in line 9. The scheming is failing. "Words came halting forth," and Invention fled. The writings of others, mentioned before the turn, are now "strangers in my way." The Speaker explains his predicament by describing himself, using vivid imagery, as "great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes."
Finally in the final couplet, the Speaker learns the answers. While berating himself, his Muse admonishes him to write from his heart instead of from his mind. The Muse here represents a divine and outside voice directing him to the obvious path.
I enjoy this sonnet quite a lot. Whether one is putting pen to paper about love, grief, or something else, writing often needs to emerge first out of the heart first. Once it does, then the mind can apply the power of editing and fine-tuning.
No comments:
Post a Comment