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Astrophil ile Stella: Soneler
İngiliz edebiyatının Shakespeare ve Marlowe'la birlikte üç büyük kurucusundan biri kabul edilen Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), adeta on altıncı yüzyıl İnglitere'sinin asker, diplomat ve sanatçı kavramlarının vücut bulmuş hali... Henüz otuz iki yaşında bir savaş sırasında ölen by süvari subayı, Astrophil ile Stella (Yıldız Seven ile Yıldız) adlı soneleriyle dört yüzyılı aşkın bir zaman sonra Türk okurunu Nazmi Ağıl'ın zarif çevirisiyle selamlıyor. Mina Urgan'ın "Shakespeare'in sonelerinden sonra çağın en güzel aşk siirleri" dediği Sidney'in eseri, bu müstesna adamın özel hayatından izlerle, gündelik hayatın ayrıntlaryla ve İngiliz Rönesansının estetiğiyle bezeli. Dil ve üslup incelikleriyle baştan sona dinamik bir anlatıma sahip olan Astrophil ile Stella, İngilizcesi ve Türkçesiyle beraber, çift dilli olarak şiirseverlerin ilgisine sunuluyor.
237 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1591
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1421 people want to read
About the author
Philip Sidney
307 books99 followersSir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent literary figures of the Elizabethan Age.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 124 reviews
July 31, 2016
"I'm such a nice guy - why is milady friendzoning me?"
February 20, 2021
First read Sidney in college a half-century ago, then for my Ph.D. on 17C criticism in verse (Dryden changed that), and finally in a post-doc NEH seminar at Princeton with Larry Lipking, "The Poet-Critics." My final essay compared Sidney and Byron as poet-critics: Byron wrote with wit, "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," fine satire, but he also interspersed poetry criticism throughout his Don Juan.
Both Sir Philip Sidney and Lord Byron had more in common than their lordship: both were poets and soldiers, writers and men of action, as well as poet-critics. Both criticized vatic, inspired poetry at the same time they wrote with ease and apparenet spontaneity. Sidney claims to have been excluded from the proteges of the Muses, "Poor layman I, for sacred rites unfit." Byron, an arrogant outsider, might put this, "Poor layman you,...."
Sidney, two centuries earlier, followed and strengthened the current of the sonnet, which was self-critical from Francesco Petrarca onward. A surprising number of Sidney's sonnets, and especially his earliest ones, begin with a gesture of critical reaction against other ways of writing (see 1,3,5,6,15,28,54,74,& 90). Ovid, too began his "Amores" with a jaunty disavowal of epic meter and tone, as does Persius in the Prolog to his Satires--which critiques the epic "Invocation of the Muses."
Persius's Prolog is lifted wholesale by Sidney, "I never drank of Aganippe's well,/ Nor never did in shade of Tempe sit/...Poor layman I, for sacred rites unfit" (#74). And THEN Sidney has the brass or chutzpah to claim, "I am no pickpurse of another's wit." "Poor layman I" may be Persius's "ipse semipaganus." [See Persius, "Nec fonte labra prolui caballino."] But whereas Sidney claims that Stella has supplanted the Muses, Persius avers that he's driven to write by his stomach. Sonnet #6 rejects Petrarchan antitheses, classical mythology, pastoral false lowliness, and self-conscious comparisons of ink to tears.
In sonnet #15, Sidney directly critiques using "Petrarch's long-deceased woes." And later he disses Spenser, "allergorie's curious frame," for when he cites Stella, he means his Lady, not as with Dante and Spenser "in hid ways to guide Philosophie." Note that Sidney's tone in instructing his reader here is close to Byron's at the end of Canto 1, DJ, "The first four lines are Southey's every line/ For God's sake reader! take them not for mine." Southey, the poet laureate, was later victim of the most brilliant parody in English, Lewis Carroll's "You are old, Father William.."
Pushkin grew out of Byron, writing an explosive critique of the poet's life and the art of verse. My latest book grows out of Pushkin and Macdonald's Parodies.
Both Sir Philip Sidney and Lord Byron had more in common than their lordship: both were poets and soldiers, writers and men of action, as well as poet-critics. Both criticized vatic, inspired poetry at the same time they wrote with ease and apparenet spontaneity. Sidney claims to have been excluded from the proteges of the Muses, "Poor layman I, for sacred rites unfit." Byron, an arrogant outsider, might put this, "Poor layman you,...."
Sidney, two centuries earlier, followed and strengthened the current of the sonnet, which was self-critical from Francesco Petrarca onward. A surprising number of Sidney's sonnets, and especially his earliest ones, begin with a gesture of critical reaction against other ways of writing (see 1,3,5,6,15,28,54,74,& 90). Ovid, too began his "Amores" with a jaunty disavowal of epic meter and tone, as does Persius in the Prolog to his Satires--which critiques the epic "Invocation of the Muses."
Persius's Prolog is lifted wholesale by Sidney, "I never drank of Aganippe's well,/ Nor never did in shade of Tempe sit/...Poor layman I, for sacred rites unfit" (#74). And THEN Sidney has the brass or chutzpah to claim, "I am no pickpurse of another's wit." "Poor layman I" may be Persius's "ipse semipaganus." [See Persius, "Nec fonte labra prolui caballino."] But whereas Sidney claims that Stella has supplanted the Muses, Persius avers that he's driven to write by his stomach. Sonnet #6 rejects Petrarchan antitheses, classical mythology, pastoral false lowliness, and self-conscious comparisons of ink to tears.
In sonnet #15, Sidney directly critiques using "Petrarch's long-deceased woes." And later he disses Spenser, "allergorie's curious frame," for when he cites Stella, he means his Lady, not as with Dante and Spenser "in hid ways to guide Philosophie." Note that Sidney's tone in instructing his reader here is close to Byron's at the end of Canto 1, DJ, "The first four lines are Southey's every line/ For God's sake reader! take them not for mine." Southey, the poet laureate, was later victim of the most brilliant parody in English, Lewis Carroll's "You are old, Father William.."
Pushkin grew out of Byron, writing an explosive critique of the poet's life and the art of verse. My latest book grows out of Pushkin and Macdonald's Parodies.
October 8, 2015
Sidney's Astrophil and Stella upholds traditional Petrarchan stock conventions through impossible hyperbolic metaphors.
Like in Sonnet 7:
When nature made chief work, Stella's eyes" -- This gives stella (Astrophil's object of desire) Power, due to her inaccessibility and cold interior demeanor (but an exquisite exterior as he puts it). Exaggerating her beauty to divine standards is a typical Petrarchan convention practiced and upheld many times in all of Sidney's sonnets.
For me, It was surprisingly enjoyable, considering this was compulsory reading material. Although, I probably interpreted it with a sarcastic overlook and not how it was intended to be presented. It's safe to say, that in this day and age, this material isn't seductive at all for me. Maybe if I was born when Sonnets were the height of romance!
Like in Sonnet 7:
When nature made chief work, Stella's eyes" -- This gives stella (Astrophil's object of desire) Power, due to her inaccessibility and cold interior demeanor (but an exquisite exterior as he puts it). Exaggerating her beauty to divine standards is a typical Petrarchan convention practiced and upheld many times in all of Sidney's sonnets.
For me, It was surprisingly enjoyable, considering this was compulsory reading material. Although, I probably interpreted it with a sarcastic overlook and not how it was intended to be presented. It's safe to say, that in this day and age, this material isn't seductive at all for me. Maybe if I was born when Sonnets were the height of romance!
January 11, 2012
Simply splendid! Sidney is a genius, and reading his sonnets is an amazing journey.
It's not only a poetry reading, nor is it a romantic cliche. Sydney writes as witty and playful as a sonnet should be, with no setbacks or hesitations. His love is as much a narcissistic as romantic, as resentful as loving, as desperate as hopeful.
These sonnets are not your banal read-and-get, it's a complex highly intelligent poetry, the kind that you could only get at the early period of self-discovery in writing, the days of early sonnets.
I truly recommend to all poetry lovers out there, especially those not afraid of a good challenge. This is not your light, swift reading. But it worth every second.
It's not only a poetry reading, nor is it a romantic cliche. Sydney writes as witty and playful as a sonnet should be, with no setbacks or hesitations. His love is as much a narcissistic as romantic, as resentful as loving, as desperate as hopeful.
These sonnets are not your banal read-and-get, it's a complex highly intelligent poetry, the kind that you could only get at the early period of self-discovery in writing, the days of early sonnets.
I truly recommend to all poetry lovers out there, especially those not afraid of a good challenge. This is not your light, swift reading. But it worth every second.
Read
July 16, 2023Read Sonnet 1 for class.
July 10, 2015
108 sonnets and 11 songs from (what I call) 'lovesick poem' genre. Sir Philip Sidney was basically Elizabethan England's answer to Italians Petrarch and Dante.
A bit different from two Italians above, Sir Philip wrote using pseudonym. Here he is Astrophel who falls in love with Stella, whom he could never reach. Yep, as in, the girl is real -- but somehow he just didn't like to mention the real name. (Although to be fair, we now know who she was, so no big deal. :P )
Indeed the names he chose were pair of meaningful names. Stella means "star", while Astrophel means "the star lover" ("Astro" + "phile"). Similar to a stargazer who only see the object he loves from afar, so was him in these sonnets.
Anyway, some examples:
There is also this memorable quip:
If you like Shakespeare's sonnets, you'd probably like this. I personally like it, although some parts sound over the top/a bit meh.
Ps:
The full set is available online (public domain): here (original spelling) and here (modern English spelling + notes and paraphrases).
A bit different from two Italians above, Sir Philip wrote using pseudonym. Here he is Astrophel who falls in love with Stella, whom he could never reach. Yep, as in, the girl is real -- but somehow he just didn't like to mention the real name. (Although to be fair, we now know who she was, so no big deal. :P )
Indeed the names he chose were pair of meaningful names. Stella means "star", while Astrophel means "the star lover" ("Astro" + "phile"). Similar to a stargazer who only see the object he loves from afar, so was him in these sonnets.
Anyway, some examples:
Sonnet #2
Not at first sight, nor with a dribbed shot
Love gave the wound, which while I breathe will bleed;
But known worth did in mine of time proceed,
Till by degrees it had full conquest got:
I saw and liked, I liked but loved not;
I lov’d, but straight did not what Love decreed.
At length to love’s decrees I, forc’d, agreed,
Yet with repining at so partial lot.
Now even that footstep of lost liberty
Is gone, and now like slave-born Muscovite
I call it praise to suffer tyranny;
And now employ the remnant of my wit
To make myself believe that all is well,
While with a feeling skill I paint my hell.
Sonnet #39
Come sleep, oh sleep, the certain knot of peace,
The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man’s wealth, the prisoner’s release,
Th’indifferent judge between the high and low;
With shield of proof shield me from out the prease
Of those fierce darts, Despair at me doth throw:
Oh make in me those civil wars to cease;
I will good tribute pay if thou do so:
Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed,
A chamber deaf to noise and blind to light;
A rosy garland, and a weary head;
And if these things, as being thine by right,
Move not thy heavy Grace, thou shalt in me
Livelier than elsewhere Stella’s image see.
There is also this memorable quip:
. . . her heart is such a citadel,
So fortified with wit, stored with disdain,
That to win it, is all the skill and pain.
If you like Shakespeare's sonnets, you'd probably like this. I personally like it, although some parts sound over the top/a bit meh.
Ps:
The full set is available online (public domain): here (original spelling) and here (modern English spelling + notes and paraphrases).
March 9, 2015
Astrophil, The Renaissance Stalker: A Reflection on Astrophil and Stella Sonnets (Sidney)
22 Sep
Astrophil, The Renaissance Stalker: A Reflection on Astrophil and Stella Sonnets (Sidney)
Sidney has certainly offered readers a beautiful journey through the psychology of love, with all of its confusion, base emotions and obsessions in his Astrophil and Stella Sonnets. I can recognize that beauty, and I love the language. But deep in the back of my mind, Astrophil’s behaviour rouses up a whisper of fear that rasps… “stalker”.
The concept of stalker may not even have existed in Sidney’s time, perhaps because of the differences between gender situations and rights of then and now. More likely, the sonnets are a warning and Sidney meant to show the “dark side” of love that could occur if a Troubadour strayed from “virtue” through the loss of reason and intellect.
Probably composed in the 1580s, Philip Sidney‘s Astrophil and Stella is an English sonnet sequence containing 108 sonnets and 11 songs. The name derives from the two Greek words, ‘aster’ (star) and ‘phil’ (lover), and the Latin word ‘stella’ meaning star. Thus Astrophil is the star lover, and Stella is his star. (Wikipedia)
1
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.”
Perhaps my title may seem alarmist, but I found myself flagging (with red flags), Sidney’s progression through love and comparing his emotional evolution to that of a modern-day, obsessive admirer. Let me share my comparisons between Astrophil’s love and a modern day stalker evolution.
First, Stella is married and unavailable to Astrophil. Granted that marriage was not a barrier to love poems during this time period, but it was considered adulterous to cross over and exercise those expressions of love. As a married woman, having an admirer who could not maintain reason, would have been very distressing and alarming, just as it would be today.
Many stalkers do not accept responsibility for their love. Throughout the sonnets, Astrophil blames everyone and everything for his fall into love except himself. Astrophil sees Stella, who is completely unaware of his attentions, and begins, on his own without any encouragement from her, to fall madly in love. He expresses his decline into this deep emotion as a plunge brought on by Cupid, but we are aware that this is rhetoric language and that Cupid had nothing to do with it.
Astrophil believes if he can express to Stella how deeply he loves her, she will return his affection, If she reads of his love, finds pleasure in his pain and then knows, and pities him, she will return his affections (1). That is the misconception of most stalkers. “If I tell her I love her, she will love me back”. This is what makes stalkers dangerous because when their love is not returned, they consider it a slight. They are unable to accept that the object of their obsession does not owe them love.
Astrophil blames Stella for his bleeding wound of love in 2. “But known worth did in mine of time proceed, Till by degrees it had full conquest got:” Astrophil did not fall in love at first site, but rather he was conquered by her “worth” that worked on him over time. This places blame for the love on Stella, who at this point is still oblivious to his attentions. Astrophil continues in this sonnet to state that he did resist (“At length under duress I agreed to Love’s commands”) but then eventually had to give in to the “duress” of love’s commands which are a product of Stella’s merits. Duress also means threat, coercion, pressure and force.
Astrophil seems to be placing himself in the position of victim who has no choice in his loving of Stella (5). He expresses his loss of intelligence (2) and reason (4) as products of this “forced” love as if he is suffering from a neurological disease that strips his mind of his human traits.
Astrophil also places Stella on a pedestal as a natural work of art in sonnets 7 and 9, “… Stella’s face, Prepar’d by Nature’s choicest furniture”. This exalted position is one that Stella may not be ready or able to live up to. She may not want to be there and will only disappoint him from this level of adoration because she is only human.
Astrophil ignores his reason, which is warning him about his emotions (10) and later in the Sonnets, he argues outright with his own mind. He is truly desperate to quiet the voices that warn us all of our misbehaviours.
One might argue this position by stating that Stella did love Astrophil as we find out later in the Sonnets. However, everything is written from Astrophil��s point of view, and if he is obsessive and delusional, perhaps Stella’s tears are not tears of love, but fear and her words of love may have been concocted to allow her a safe escape from the moment. Perhaps the words never existed at all. Misperceived love is often the misconception or delusion of the stalker, and Astrophil is definitely operating under misconception.
Loving, and wishing to show my love in verse,
So that Stella might find pleasure in my pain,
So that pleasure might make her read, and reading make her know me,
And knowledge might win pity for me, and pity might obtain grace,
I looked for fitting words to depict the darkest face of sadness,
Studying clever creations in order to entertain her mind,
Often turning others’ pages to see if, from them,
Fresh and fruitful ideas would flow into my brain.
But words came out lamely, lacking the support of Imagination:
Imagination, nature’s child, fled the blows of Study, her stepmother:
And the writings (‘feet’) of others seemed only alien things in the way.
So while pregnant with the desire to speak, helpless with the birth pangs,
Biting at my pen which disobeyed me, beating myself in anger,
My Muse said to me ‘Fool, look in your heart and write.’
22 Sep
Astrophil, The Renaissance Stalker: A Reflection on Astrophil and Stella Sonnets (Sidney)
Sidney has certainly offered readers a beautiful journey through the psychology of love, with all of its confusion, base emotions and obsessions in his Astrophil and Stella Sonnets. I can recognize that beauty, and I love the language. But deep in the back of my mind, Astrophil’s behaviour rouses up a whisper of fear that rasps… “stalker”.
The concept of stalker may not even have existed in Sidney’s time, perhaps because of the differences between gender situations and rights of then and now. More likely, the sonnets are a warning and Sidney meant to show the “dark side” of love that could occur if a Troubadour strayed from “virtue” through the loss of reason and intellect.
Probably composed in the 1580s, Philip Sidney‘s Astrophil and Stella is an English sonnet sequence containing 108 sonnets and 11 songs. The name derives from the two Greek words, ‘aster’ (star) and ‘phil’ (lover), and the Latin word ‘stella’ meaning star. Thus Astrophil is the star lover, and Stella is his star. (Wikipedia)
1
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.”
Perhaps my title may seem alarmist, but I found myself flagging (with red flags), Sidney’s progression through love and comparing his emotional evolution to that of a modern-day, obsessive admirer. Let me share my comparisons between Astrophil’s love and a modern day stalker evolution.
First, Stella is married and unavailable to Astrophil. Granted that marriage was not a barrier to love poems during this time period, but it was considered adulterous to cross over and exercise those expressions of love. As a married woman, having an admirer who could not maintain reason, would have been very distressing and alarming, just as it would be today.
Many stalkers do not accept responsibility for their love. Throughout the sonnets, Astrophil blames everyone and everything for his fall into love except himself. Astrophil sees Stella, who is completely unaware of his attentions, and begins, on his own without any encouragement from her, to fall madly in love. He expresses his decline into this deep emotion as a plunge brought on by Cupid, but we are aware that this is rhetoric language and that Cupid had nothing to do with it.
Astrophil believes if he can express to Stella how deeply he loves her, she will return his affection, If she reads of his love, finds pleasure in his pain and then knows, and pities him, she will return his affections (1). That is the misconception of most stalkers. “If I tell her I love her, she will love me back”. This is what makes stalkers dangerous because when their love is not returned, they consider it a slight. They are unable to accept that the object of their obsession does not owe them love.
Astrophil blames Stella for his bleeding wound of love in 2. “But known worth did in mine of time proceed, Till by degrees it had full conquest got:” Astrophil did not fall in love at first site, but rather he was conquered by her “worth” that worked on him over time. This places blame for the love on Stella, who at this point is still oblivious to his attentions. Astrophil continues in this sonnet to state that he did resist (“At length under duress I agreed to Love’s commands”) but then eventually had to give in to the “duress” of love’s commands which are a product of Stella’s merits. Duress also means threat, coercion, pressure and force.
Astrophil seems to be placing himself in the position of victim who has no choice in his loving of Stella (5). He expresses his loss of intelligence (2) and reason (4) as products of this “forced” love as if he is suffering from a neurological disease that strips his mind of his human traits.
Astrophil also places Stella on a pedestal as a natural work of art in sonnets 7 and 9, “… Stella’s face, Prepar’d by Nature’s choicest furniture”. This exalted position is one that Stella may not be ready or able to live up to. She may not want to be there and will only disappoint him from this level of adoration because she is only human.
Astrophil ignores his reason, which is warning him about his emotions (10) and later in the Sonnets, he argues outright with his own mind. He is truly desperate to quiet the voices that warn us all of our misbehaviours.
One might argue this position by stating that Stella did love Astrophil as we find out later in the Sonnets. However, everything is written from Astrophil��s point of view, and if he is obsessive and delusional, perhaps Stella’s tears are not tears of love, but fear and her words of love may have been concocted to allow her a safe escape from the moment. Perhaps the words never existed at all. Misperceived love is often the misconception or delusion of the stalker, and Astrophil is definitely operating under misconception.
Loving, and wishing to show my love in verse,
So that Stella might find pleasure in my pain,
So that pleasure might make her read, and reading make her know me,
And knowledge might win pity for me, and pity might obtain grace,
I looked for fitting words to depict the darkest face of sadness,
Studying clever creations in order to entertain her mind,
Often turning others’ pages to see if, from them,
Fresh and fruitful ideas would flow into my brain.
But words came out lamely, lacking the support of Imagination:
Imagination, nature’s child, fled the blows of Study, her stepmother:
And the writings (‘feet’) of others seemed only alien things in the way.
So while pregnant with the desire to speak, helpless with the birth pangs,
Biting at my pen which disobeyed me, beating myself in anger,
My Muse said to me ‘Fool, look in your heart and write.’
December 25, 2021
like 3.5 stars..? disclaimer: i only read the first 30 sonnets
i used to be largely unimpressed because it was mostly a lot of complaining about love and stella that was low-key kind of cringe, but tbh i think it grew on me over the course of this year - i appreciate some of his themes of writing, ambition, and (of course) love, as well as the beauty and earnest sincerity of some of his lines (embracing the cringe, in a way)
perhaps this speaks to my true feelings about sidney himself but my favourite sonnets were those where he was truly melancholy and despairing like sonnet 19 and 31. also i never really understood the "joke" in sonnet 25 but it always felt like a 'big-brain' point and for that i appreciated how it contributed to a couple of my essays.
i used to be largely unimpressed because it was mostly a lot of complaining about love and stella that was low-key kind of cringe, but tbh i think it grew on me over the course of this year - i appreciate some of his themes of writing, ambition, and (of course) love, as well as the beauty and earnest sincerity of some of his lines (embracing the cringe, in a way)
perhaps this speaks to my true feelings about sidney himself but my favourite sonnets were those where he was truly melancholy and despairing like sonnet 19 and 31. also i never really understood the "joke" in sonnet 25 but it always felt like a 'big-brain' point and for that i appreciated how it contributed to a couple of my essays.
April 15, 2017
"....and reading make her know me,"
"So while pregnant with the desire to speak, helpless with the birth pangs,
Biting at my pen which disobeyed me, beating myself in anger,
My Muse said to me ‘Fool, look in your heart and write.’"
Sonnet 10
"Reason, in faith thou art well serv’d, that still
Wouldst brabbling be with sense and love in me:
I rather wish’d thee climb the Muses’ hill,
Or reach the fruit of Nature’s choicest tree,
Or seek heav’n’s course, or heav’n’s inside to see:
Why shouldst thou toil our thorny soil to till?
Leave sense, and those which sense’s objects be:
Deal thou with powers of thoughts, leave love to will.
But thou wouldst needs fight both with love and sense,
With sword of wit, giving wounds of dispraise,
Till downright blows did foil thy cunning fence:
For soon as they strake thee with Stella’s rays,
Reason thou kneel’dst, and offeredst straight to prove
By reason good, good reason her to love.
..
Why should you labour to cultivate my thorny soil?
.."
"So while pregnant with the desire to speak, helpless with the birth pangs,
Biting at my pen which disobeyed me, beating myself in anger,
My Muse said to me ‘Fool, look in your heart and write.’"
Sonnet 10
"Reason, in faith thou art well serv’d, that still
Wouldst brabbling be with sense and love in me:
I rather wish’d thee climb the Muses’ hill,
Or reach the fruit of Nature’s choicest tree,
Or seek heav’n’s course, or heav’n’s inside to see:
Why shouldst thou toil our thorny soil to till?
Leave sense, and those which sense’s objects be:
Deal thou with powers of thoughts, leave love to will.
But thou wouldst needs fight both with love and sense,
With sword of wit, giving wounds of dispraise,
Till downright blows did foil thy cunning fence:
For soon as they strake thee with Stella’s rays,
Reason thou kneel’dst, and offeredst straight to prove
By reason good, good reason her to love.
..
Why should you labour to cultivate my thorny soil?
.."
Read
June 16, 2022(don't want for rate bc it was sonnets & 10 songs rather than a book) i had wanted to read it because the title intrigued me and I stumbled across 2 of the sonnets in a collection of love poems. It took me a while to find the way of reading Elizabethan english that was enjoyable&understandable, but there were def some sonnets where verses or certain parts stood out to me as 5/5 lines. wouldn't read all the sonnets again but def would go back to a few here and there
February 1, 2012
Unfortunately for the English language, Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella is not more universally read and Recognized. These poems express the giddy delight of love and the eventual pain of such love being unrequited. Humorous, symbolic, enigmatic and beautiful, these poems will delight all who love the drama of a true life love story.
October 20, 2015
The amount of sonnets I had to read this week...I'm seeing life in 10 syllables and beauty decay everywhere I'm that damaged. But at least my favourable opinion of this collection will live on forever in this review...
February 10, 2016
this is a work of rhetorical and poetic virtuosity, one hundred and eight sonnets for the one hundred and eight suitors of penelope, each poem a plea for stella's love, for stella's attention, for stella's pity; each poem donning the garb of a suitor and demanding their suit be heard.
August 26, 2017
I'm on a roll! This took me so long because I had to read each sonnet out though otherwise I wouldn't comprehend anything. It was fun and random and it checks off my non-fiction reads of 2017.
(eBook)
(eBook)
August 23, 2020
Ok so it is beautifully written... but wow, he is a bit of a psychopath! No wonder Stella doesn’t want him, he’s obsessive, jealous, dark and really quite forceful to the point of sexually aggressive. Honestly I’m shook.
October 6, 2009
Downloaded an ecopy.
Not Shakespeare but much better than Thomas Wyatt.
Not Shakespeare but much better than Thomas Wyatt.
January 3, 2017
I read sonnet 31 first and i liked it kinda but I liked Sonnet 39 much better that gets 3 stars.
sonnet 31 **
sonnet 39 ***
sonnet 31 **
sonnet 39 ***
March 16, 2025
There were some beautiful sonnets and songs in here. You will find a lot of conventional Petrarchan love tropes in here. Some are extremely desperate and pathetic (sonnet 59 seems unforgettable because astrophil says he is jealous of Stella’s dog). There are plenty of classical allusions, but also references to things that would be contemporary global events for Sidney’s time. I love sonnet 2, where astrophil says “now even that footstep of lost liberty/Is gone, and now like slave-born Muscovite/I call it praise to suffer tyranny.” Love is like being enslaved to him. There were countless brilliant lines in here and I can not write them all down. But yeah over all this was a delight to read.
December 14, 2025
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."
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."
July 31, 2023
Alternates between A. stanzas that I’d love to have written about me and B. stanzas that live in manipulation station.
Example A:
Example B:
Example A:
“How then? Even thus: in Stella's face I read
What love and beauty be, then all my deed
But copying is, what in her Nature writes.”
Example B:
“Woe to me! And do you swear
Me to hate? But I forbear.
Cursed be my destines all,
That brought me so high, to fall;
Soon with my death I will please thee.
‘No, no, no, no, my dear, let be.’”
January 2, 2018
Loving in truth, and faine in verse my love to show,
That she (deare she) might take some pleasure of my paine:
Pleasure might cause her reade, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pitie winne, and pitie grace obtaine,
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe,
Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertaine:
Oft turning others leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitfull showers upon my sunne_burn'd braine.
That she (deare she) might take some pleasure of my paine:
Pleasure might cause her reade, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pitie winne, and pitie grace obtaine,
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe,
Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertaine:
Oft turning others leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitfull showers upon my sunne_burn'd braine.
July 22, 2020
cuándo deja de ser difícil leer los sonetos de los 1500? :( leo las demás reseñas que dicen "Not Shakespeare but much better than Thomas Wyatt." y quisiera decir same, pero no estoy tan segura si es real.
January 4, 2022
'Dumb swans, not chattering pies, do lovers prove/ They love indeed, who quake to say they love.'
Please take your own advice and don't write 108 sonnets professing your love to some yat. Gets old quickly and is giving You vibes
Please take your own advice and don't write 108 sonnets professing your love to some yat. Gets old quickly and is giving You vibes
November 22, 2020
I read this for my university course. I'm not generally a fan of sonnet sequences, so in relation to that, I was actually pleasantly surprised by this. I didn't hate it which I am taking as a win.
February 16, 2021
Only read the first sonnet
August 15, 2024
Went through serious happiness withdrawals reading this
October 12, 2017
as simple as the old is gold phrase! A genuine romance versed and christened!
October 14, 2024
Finalmente! Finalmente. Non dico che le rime fossero perfette, non penso che l'argomento sempre possa esser gradito, non oso di certo con presunzione credere che sia questa un'opera senza pari, masi sente, sì, si sente senza dubbio quella spinta che il poeta - il vero poeta ! - ha verso l'universo tutto, attraverso l'oggetto della sua attenzione. Scaturisce dalle singole parole un'armonia, festosa, leggera, etera, cupa, disperata che fosse, ma sempre un'armonia, che anche se talvolta stride, si può ricondurre a quella del mondo tutto. Vera poesia, finalmente !
July 8, 2016
Most of these sonnets regarded alone and in their own terms are masterpieces. However, when you take into consideration that Sidney wrote them all as part of a massive 108-sonnet sequence, some light is shed in his poetic achievement.
About 99% of these poems talk about Stella, and what is most impressive about this is that they are never exactly repetitive. This achievement recalls the deaths in the Iliad, countless warriors fall, but none do so in the same way.
My favourite sonnet in this collection is still number 2:
Not at first sight, nor with a dribbed shot,
Love gave the wound which while I breathe will bleed;
But known worth did in mine of time proceed,
Till by degrees it had full conquest got.
I saw, and liked; I liked, but loved not;
I loved, but straight did not what love decreed;
At length to love’s decrees I, forced, agreed,
Yet with repining at so partial lot.
Now even that footstep of lost liberty
Is gone, and now like slave-born Muscovite
I call it praise to suffer tyranny;
And now employ the remnant of my wit
To make myself believe that all is well,
While with a feeling skill I paint my hell.
About 99% of these poems talk about Stella, and what is most impressive about this is that they are never exactly repetitive. This achievement recalls the deaths in the Iliad, countless warriors fall, but none do so in the same way.
My favourite sonnet in this collection is still number 2:
Not at first sight, nor with a dribbed shot,
Love gave the wound which while I breathe will bleed;
But known worth did in mine of time proceed,
Till by degrees it had full conquest got.
I saw, and liked; I liked, but loved not;
I loved, but straight did not what love decreed;
At length to love’s decrees I, forced, agreed,
Yet with repining at so partial lot.
Now even that footstep of lost liberty
Is gone, and now like slave-born Muscovite
I call it praise to suffer tyranny;
And now employ the remnant of my wit
To make myself believe that all is well,
While with a feeling skill I paint my hell.
October 4, 2016
Some of my favorite verses:
1- "When Nature made her chief work, Stella’s eyes,
In colour black why wrapp’d she beams so bright?"
2- "O Love, truly, in what a boyish manner
You carry out your most serious tasks,
So that when Heaven shows you his best offering
You nevertheless leave that best behind."
3- "Poor passenger, pass now thereby I did,
And stayed pleas’d with the prospect of the place,
While that black hue from me the bad guest hid:
But straight I saw motions of lightning grace,
And then descried the glist’ring of his dart:
But ere I could fly hence, it pierc’d my heart."
4- "Come, let me write. “And to what end?” To ease
A burthen’d heart. “How can words ease, which are
The glasses of thy daily vexing care?”
Oft cruel fights well pictur’d forth do please.
“Art not asham’d to publish thy disease?”
Nay, that may breed my fame, it is so rare."
5- "Dear, why make you more of a dog than me?
If he do love, I burn, I burn in love;
If he wait well, I never thence would move;
If he be fair, yet but a dog can be.
Little he is, so little worth is he;"
1- "When Nature made her chief work, Stella’s eyes,
In colour black why wrapp’d she beams so bright?"
2- "O Love, truly, in what a boyish manner
You carry out your most serious tasks,
So that when Heaven shows you his best offering
You nevertheless leave that best behind."
3- "Poor passenger, pass now thereby I did,
And stayed pleas’d with the prospect of the place,
While that black hue from me the bad guest hid:
But straight I saw motions of lightning grace,
And then descried the glist’ring of his dart:
But ere I could fly hence, it pierc’d my heart."
4- "Come, let me write. “And to what end?” To ease
A burthen’d heart. “How can words ease, which are
The glasses of thy daily vexing care?”
Oft cruel fights well pictur’d forth do please.
“Art not asham’d to publish thy disease?”
Nay, that may breed my fame, it is so rare."
5- "Dear, why make you more of a dog than me?
If he do love, I burn, I burn in love;
If he wait well, I never thence would move;
If he be fair, yet but a dog can be.
Little he is, so little worth is he;"
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