Sir philip sidney summary
Sir philip sidney astrophil and stella sonnet 1 summary
Leave me, o love which reachest but to dust analysis!
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86) was one of the finest poets of the English Renaissance and a pioneer of the sonnet form and English love poetry.
Many of Sidney’s finest poems are to be found in his long sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella – the first substantial sonnet sequence in English literature – but he wrote a number of other poems which are much-loved and widely anthologised.
Below we’ve chosen what we think are ten of Sir Philip Sidney’s best poems.
1. Sonnet 1: ‘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 …
One of the best poems about writing poetry, this sonnet, written in alexandrines or twelve-syllable lines, opens Sidney’s great sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stell
