POEM (sONNET), LOVING IN TRUTH

BY

Sir Phillip Sidney

Sir Philip Sidney was born in 1554 and died in 1586. He was an English poet, scholar, soldier, and courtier. Sir Philip Sidney is remembered as one of the main literary figures of the Elizabethan age. His most notable works include: Astrophel and Stella, The Defence of Poesy (also known as The Defence of Poetryor An Apology for Poetry), and The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia.

Sir Philip Sidney was born in 1554 and died in 1586. He was an English poet, scholar, soldier, and courtier. Sir Philip Sidney is remembered as one of the main literary figures of the Elizabethan age. His most notable works include: Astrophel and Stella, The Defence of Poesy (also known as The Defence of Poetryor An Apology for Poetry), and The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia. Sonnet 1 by Sir Philip Sidney

Sonnet 1 is featured in Astrophil and Stella, a sonnet sequence that has 108 sonnets and 11 songs. Astrophil and Stella was probably written in the 1580s and it narrates the story of Astrophil and his hopeless passion for Stella. Moreover, it is the first sonnet sequence written in the English language. Particularly, Sonnet 1 depicts the lyrical voice’s motivation for writing the sonnet sequence. The lyrical voice believes that, if his loved one reads the sonnets, she would return his affection. Moreover, the lyrical voice focuses on the difficulties of writing

Sonnet I: Loving In Truth

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 sun-burn’d brain.

But words came halting forth, wanting Invention’s stay,

Invention, Nature’s child, fled step-dame Study’s blows,

And others’ feet still seem’d 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.”

Sonnet 1 resembles a Petrarchan sonnet. It has 14 lines and it is written in iambic Hexameter. Sonnet 1 can be divided in an octet and a sestet and it has an ABAB ABAB CDCDEE rhyme scheme. Moreover, the poem has love and creation as its main themes.

Sonnet 1 Poem Analysis

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.

The octet of Sonnet 1 introduces the sonnet sequence as a whole. 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 he 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, it shows courtly love, a medieval tradition in which the desperate lover watches the woman, his loved one, from afar.

Moreover, the lyrical voice is concerned with how he expresses his emotions. Notice 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”. There is a natural imagery in the final lines of the octet in order to accentuate this particular emotional writing.

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 sestet of Sonnet 1 introduces the volta, turn in Italian. The lyrical voice focuses on the composition of poetry and personifies the moment of writing (“wanting Invention’s stay:/Invention, Nature’s child, fled step-dame Study’s blows”). He still reflects on studying other poets and their writing: “And others’ feet still seemed but strangers in my way/Thus great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes”. Notice how the metatextuality is accentuated and deepened in this stanza. Then, the lyrical voice turns into his own and particular moment of writing: “Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite/ ‘Fool,’ said my Muse to me, ‘look in thy heart and write’”. These final lines are crucial, as they suggest two main things. First, there is a divine influence that the lyrical voice finds while writing. And, secondly, the lyrical voice constructs his own poetic and literary consciousness towards his own writings and those of others.

[13:01, 01/12/2020] Dr. Baburam Swami: A Short Analysis of Sir Philip Sidney’s ‘Loving in Truth’(1554-86) is often credited with writing the first sonnet sequence in English, and he was certainly the first English poet to write a long cycle of sonnets.

Composed in the early 1580s, Astrophil and Stella (sometimes Astrophel and Stella) is a sequence of 108 sonnets – and a few songs – inspired by Sidney’s unrequited love for Penelope Rich (nee Devereux), who was offered to him as a potential wife a few years before. Sidney turned her down, she married Lord Robert Rich, and Sidney promptly realised he was in love with her. What follows is a brief analysis of the opening sonnet in the sequence, beginning ‘Loving in Truth, and fain in verse my love to show’.

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 sunburn’d brain.

But words came halting forth, wanting invention’s stay;

Invention, Nature’s child, fled step-dame Study’s blows;

And others’ feet still seem’d 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.’

How autobiographical the sonnets in Astrophil and Stella actually are is disputed, and many scholars incline towards thinking Sidney is adopting a persona in these poems. Still, ‘Astrophil’ (meaning ‘star-lover’; sometimes rendered as ‘Astrophel’) is clearly meant to bring ‘Philip Sidney’ to mind, partly because of the ‘phil’ contained in the name, and partly because of an obscure pun (‘Astro’ means ‘star’, punning on the ‘Sid’ of Sidney – similar to the Latin sidus, ‘star’). So Sidney clearly did ‘look into [his] heart’ before he wrote.

This opening sonnet sees Sidney introducing – and, indeed, inducing – the sonnet sequence as a whole. (Compare the first sonnet in Shakespeare’s Sonnets, which is somewhat less ‘introductory’ in nature.)

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;

In summary, he acknowledges that he truly loves the woman he is to write about, and wants to convey that through the poetry he writes, so that his pain – in being transmuted into great verse – will please the woman he loves.

This will have the knock-on effect of making her want to read on, and through reading on she will come to know how deeply he loves Sir Philip Sidneyher, and when she realises this she will pity him, and thus he will win her ‘grace’ or attention and blessing.

So far, so courtly love: that medieval tradition in poetry whereby the hopeless lover admires the woman from afar, and wishes to please her by praising her beauty in poetry, through immortalising her in verse. (Later on in the sonnet sequence, Sidney will critique this idea and give it a Renaissance twist.)

Studying inventions fine her wits to entertain,

Oft turning others’ leaves, to see if thence would flow

Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburn’d brain.

But Sidney says that he made the mistake of studying other writers’ words and trying to emulate them in order ‘to paint the blackest face of woe’.

But words came halting forth, wanting invention’s stay;

Invention, Nature’s child, fled step-dame Study’s blows;

And others’ feet still seem’d but strangers in my way.

Sidney then creates a somewhat unusual ‘family’ whereby Invention (i.e. the poet’s creativity) is the child of Nature (Mother Nature, of course), but Invention is being governed here not by his natural mother, Nature, but by his stepmother or ‘step-dame’, Study.

And study is not the best way to beget invention – not if the words one invents are to ring true. What’s more, through copying what others have written, Sidney finds other writers hinder rather than help him, because – to use the old line – it’s all been said before. And because of that, his words will ring hollow and his beloved won’t believe them.

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.’

Sidney then returns to the mothering analogy, and likens himself to a woman ‘great with child’ – (so) to speak. Suffering the pangs or ‘throes’ of childbirth, he bites his pen and beats himself for not being able to write, and then – his Muse speaks, chiding him for a fool, and commanding him to look in his heart and start writing.

[13:19, 01/12/2020] Dr. Baburam Swami: Forget books, forget study: just be true to yourself. Look inside and write what you find there. (‘Heart’ in Sidney’s time wasn’t simply used to refer to romantic emotion; there was no strict divide made between the brain and the heart. So ‘look in thy heart’ isn’t a foolishly romantic command: it also means ‘examine your thoughts’.)

Thus, in a neat opening sonnet, Sidney declares that what follows will be ‘from the heart’. This is also a convention of courtly love, but Sidney is already giving it a twist. In terms of the form he employs, careful analysis reveals that Sidney innovates right from the start, in deploying twelve-syllable lines (known as ‘alexandrines’) rather than the conventional ten-syllable lines typically found in a sonnet.