Astrophel And Stella

3 Pages 815 Words

Which is the main topic of Sir Philip Sidney´s sonnet “Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show” ?

Sir Philip Sidney gave this poem, which first line is “Louing in trueth and fayne in verse my loue to show” , the title „Astrophel and Stella“.
Astrophel is the name of the main character, the writer himself. He loves a woman called Stella and writes this poem for her to declare his love in it.
But what is the main topic of his poem ? Is it really only to tell Stella about his love ?
Or is it his desparate desperate to put his love in words ?
Having a closer look to the poem, I will find this out in the following.
Stella, the woman Astrophel adores, is married to another man. Therefore she is not available for him. But as he is not able to just switch off his feelings, he wants to write them down. But already in the first verse there is a hint that it doesn´t come easily to him:
“Louing in trueth and fayne in verse my loue to show” (line 1) . “Fayne” just means that he is trying and really desiring to bring his thoughts to paper but that he doesn´t manage it so far.
Although Stella is married Astrophel doesn´t stop hoping. If he just succeeded in writing her a poem and if she liked it then maybe she would also fall in love with him.
(“Pleasure might cause her reade, reading might make her know.” (line 3) ). He even goes that far: Knowing about his feelings would cause her feeling pity for him and she would stay with him because of pity or grace. (“Knowledge might pittie winne, and pity grace obtaine.” (line 4) ).
But he only can think about such things and doesn´t know how it really would be, as long as he cannot solve his actual problem: Put his feelings in words. Astrophel studied the poems of other writers and tries to find a way for himself to write a poem that honestly expresses his feelings. (“Studying inuentions fine, her wits to entertaine, / Oft turning other leaues, to ...