Sir Philip Sidney

Paper Summary:

This paper presents Sir Philip Sidney, one of the greatest writers in the English tradition. The author compares Sidney to great writers such as Wyatt, Surrey, Sackville, Spenser and Petrarch. The paper uses examples from his poems "The Defense of Poesie," "Arcadia, and Astrophil" and "Stella" to exemplify his style.

From the Paper:

"Stella is more than just an object of adoration and becomes a convincing human being who can assert her own rights. From the very beginning, she acquires credibility because Astrophil does not fall suddenly in love with her at the first glance, but, as he puts it in the second sonnet, "knowne worth did in mine of time proceed, / Till by degrees it had full conquest got." Her "worth," which he gradually comes to know, is the important factor, not her physical beauty. As the sequence proceeds, Stella's physical attributes do indeed come to the fore with all the traditional imagery of light and dark, warmth and cold, sweetness and jewels and there are times when, lifted out of context, it would be quite possible to say. Here is a typical Petrarchan lady, with her separate parts described as though she were an unfeeling object. But, intermingled with praise of Stella is criticism of her, sometimes covert and sometimes blatant."

More papers on Sir Philip Sidney:

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• Analytical Essay # 5363 : "Delia"
• Poem Review # 122862 : "Astrophel and Stella" - Analysis"

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