Sidney

Astrophil and Stella Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich

Sonnet Italian

Sonnet cycle—first recognizable one in English 108 sonnets and 11 songs

Way of looking at a collection of sonnets rather than a “plot”

Neoplatonism

“Divine Beauty” through an “earthly lover”

“material world is a path to the spiritual world, rather than an obstacle to or diversion from it”

(Murfin and Ray, 292)

Petrarchanism--Neoplatonism Petrarch—14th c. Italian poet, Francesco

Petrarca Sonnet form plus distinctive use of:

Imagery Figures of speech Formal style Petrarchan conceit (exaggerated portrait of lady’s

beauty and cruelty) Hyperbole Oxymoron

Petrarchanism/Neoplatonism

Sidney engages this poetic tradition, but also questions it

Sonnet form

14 lines rhymed iambic pentameter 2 forms for Sidney/Shakespeare Italian/Petrarchan

Abba abba cdc dee (usually)

English/Shakespearean abab cdcd efef gg

Mapping a sonnet

Considering scansion Son 71 (1095 9th) Who will in fairest booke of nature know

How virtue may best lodged in beauty be,

Let him but learn of love to read in thee,

Stella, those fair lines which true goodness show.

There shall he find all vices overthrow,

Not by rude force, but sweetest sovereignty

In-class scansion

Try the next two lines

Of reason, from whose light those night-birds fly,

That inward sun in thine eyes shineth so.

Sonnet 71

“Give me some food”

Playing with the Neoplatonic tradition

Form matters

Why choose a sonnet?

What is the connection between form and meaning?

Sonnet 1(9th ed. Page 1084-50 Look in thy heart and write Sonnet is about love, but also about writing

and style, about “invention” Some elements to know: alexandrine (iambic

hexameter), “fain” (l. 1), childbirth metaphor, How does the poem flow? Does the lady get to speak?

Sonnet 31(page 1090 9th ed)

Personification of the Moon Speaker standing outside the courtly world Opening monosyllables and repetitions

Sonnet 9(page 1086-7 9th ed)

Petrarchan convention (see also sonnet 6) “Rich” Penelope Rich, an idealized love, Queen

Elizabeth?

Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Form: 3 Quatrains/Couplet abab cdcd efef gg

The sonnet vogue

Shakespeare as icon and the perils of autobio-crit.

Is this a sonnet cycle?

The Figures of the Sonnets

The Young Man

The Rival Poet

The Dark Lady

The Young Man

Who is the Young Man?

What are the implications of autobiographical criticism?

The Young Man

Many references to time Sonnet 3 (1171, 9th) Sonnet 19 (1173 9th) Sonnet 55 (1175 9th) Sonnet 65 (1176 9th)

Tomb of Mary and Elizabeth

Poetic form

Sonnet 129 (1183 9th)

The Dark Lady

Sonnet 130 (p. 1184 9th)

Sonnet 127 (p. 1183, 9th)

Often read in relation to Petrarchan convention

The Dark Lady

Kim Hall, Things of Darkness

The Defence of Poesy

Three types of poets p. 958/1052

Vates—Prophets Philosophical Poets “Right” poets—”to teach and delight”

(echo of Chaucer’s “sentence and solaas?)

Poetry as imaginative literature

Poet as “maker” (956)

956/1049

Poetry improves humanity

Delivering a golden world (957/1050) Cyrus (957/1050) Erected wit/infected will (957/1050) Poetry draws us to perfection (neoplatonic)

(959/1052) Architectonike (960/1053)

Charges Against Poetry

P. 967/1066

Waste of time Mother of lies Nurse of abuse

Sidney’s response

“No learning is so good as that which teacheth and moveth to virtue” (967/1068)

“of all writers under the sun the poet is the least liar” (967/1068)

Neil Gaiman

“telling lies to tell the truth”

What makes the canon?