Astrophel and Stella by Sir Philip Sidney - Essay Example

?Sonnets are literary forms that usually thematically express romantic love and the sonnet sequence, Astrophel and Stella, written by Sir Philip Sidney, is also no exception to this. This sonnet sequence is a discourse on the existential and moral concerns of a man, Astrophel, who is passionately in love with a married woman, Stella (Sidney, 2004). Astrophel is seen oscillating between hope and disappointment as he pursues this woman in his dreams and in reality (Sidney, 2004). Rejection by her flairs up a self-destructive fire in him and the sonnet sequence culminates in his unfathomable misery (Sidney, 2004, p.75-76). This paper is an effort to analyse, to what extent Sidney is following the conventions of the sonnet tradition, and to what extent is he innovating and doing something new. This investigation is analysing three selected sonnets from this sequence, the fourth, twelfth and tenth sonnets. The fourth sonnet is a conversation that the protagonist makes with virtue, in which he admits that he was foregoing the norms of virtue in his pursuit of his love (Sidney, 2004, p.2-3). Astrophel also is found justifying this attitude of his by saying that he was so completely incapacitated by his love for Stella, to listen to the wise words of virtue (Sidney, 2004, p.2-3). The moral dilemma faced by Astrophel is vividly narrated in this sonnet and what is morally right in the given situation is well spelt-out (Sidney, 2004, p.2-3). This is an approach that correlates with the conventional sonnet tradition. The twelfth sonnet also has certain elements that reflect the literary norms of a conventional sonnet (Sidney, 2004, p.6-7). This sonnet depicts the woman the protagonist loves as someone unique, perfect and beyond the reach of cupid even (Sidney, 2004, p.6-7). This kind of glorification of the beloved is suggestive of the blind nature of love itself, that makes the lover unaware of the flaws of the loved one (Sidney, 2004, p.6-7). Thomas P.Roche (1989) has described Philip’s sonnet sequence as “a fictional device for the analysis of human desire in Christian terms” (p.196). The hero of the sonnet is seen as having a desire bordering madness that he bears with pride and despises all the same (Sidney, 2004). Owing to this element of personal conflict, the sonnet sequence is given an unconventional title by the poet- a title that departs from the tradition of giving the name of the woman involved and instead giving equal importance to the man and woman (Sidney, 2004). While sonnets in general are focused solely on the object of passion or adoration, that is usually a beautiful female, this sonnet sequence gives equal importance to the person who is attracted to the woman as well. The title of the sonnet sequence is a combination of the names of the man and the woman involved (Sidney, 2004). The thematic devices usually adopted in a sonnet are used by Sidney (2004) as well. These include, conversations that the protagonist carries out with human emotions and values, self-love, self-pity and self-dispise, swinging of moods between hope and despair, a tendency to tread the path of dreams and fantasies, viewing the world as a prison and a hostile 'other', and a constant melencholy (Sidney, 2004). But there are not so conventional thematic elements added to this, like, self-criticism, introspection, and an awareness of what reality is (Sidney, 2004). For example, in the 10th sonnet, the protagonist is arguing with ample reason why he is unable to follow a reasonable course (Sidney, 2004, p.5). In agreement with the observation that “a Sidney sonnet seeks to exhaust itself in its final phrase”, this sonnet also concludes with a line that shows how reason itself is conquered by Stella's virtues and is forced to find reasonable justification for loving her (Hamilton, 1977, p.87). In other words, the very argument put forth by reason against Astrophel's love for Stella gets conquered by her special persona and reason itself can do nothing but agree with the protagonist in this matter. By conquering reason like this, the protagonist also banishes reason from his moral space in a complete take over. Another common feature of all sonnets have been that they have ingrained in them, a moral lesson. Sidney’s (2004) sonnets also have an underlying moral theme that calls for reason to prevail and virtue to rule (p.5). But Sidney has sometimes departed from this moral stance as the narrative moves ahead and has allowed his passions to prevail over morality. The “cunning defences” of reason are overcome by the aura of the object of unreasonable desire (Sidney, 2004, p.5). The traditional sonnet format of an octave of 8 lines followed by a sestet of 6 lines is the structure followed by Sidney (2004) in his sonnet sequence. All the same, Sidney (2004) has used “an Italian octave” along with an “English sestet” (Spiller, 1992, p.108). As usual, there is a change in mood at the point of transition from the octave to the sestet in each octave (Sidney, 2004). In the three sonnets being examined here, the unique Sidnean sonnet structure of “three quatrains and a couplet” is well-established (Sidney, 2004; Cheney, 2011, p.154). The two quatrains of the octave have a common “rhyme scheme” ( Cheney, 2011, p.154). It is also observed, “the setset introduces a third quatrain whose rhyme scheme differs (cdcd), and it adds a couplet”( Cheney, 2011, p.154). It is also revealed that the “conceptual break” in each of these sonnets converge with the “metrical break” within ( Cheney, 2011, p.154). Sidney (2004) has also been noticed to have “subdue[...] [ed] metrical pattern to the pattern of the human voice” ( Cheney, 2011, p.155). Addressing virtue, the protagonist is seen declaring that virtue “setst a bate betweene my will and wit” (Sidney, 2004, p.2). The octave part of this sonnet is asking virtue to stop trying to persuade him to abandon his futile love (Sidney, 2004, p.2). The sestest part of this sonnet has a changed mood where virtue is invited to look at the very virtues of the woman who caused the moral dilemma involved (Sidney, 2004, p.2-3). In this manner, there is an attempt to resolve the dilemma through looking at it from another angle. In an extreme act of self-justification, the very aspect that evokes a moral dilemma is transformed into an aspect that justifies and nullifies the dilemma. Similarly, in the 27th sonnet, the male character of the poem talks about his soul that often looks into an “unflatt'ring glass”, suggesting that he is not carried away by his fancies altogether but is always reminded by his own self that what he was doing could be morally wrong (Sidney, 2004, p.18). He is also aware of the injustifiable ways in which he ignores his best friends, submerged in his love and desire for Stella (Sidney, 2004, p.18). The fourth and tenth sonnets and many more are “apostrophic sonnets,” that have in them as the content, “an address to some person or thing” (Spiller, 1992, p.109). The tenth sonnet is addressing reason, and the fourth sonnet, virtue (Sidney, 2004, p.2-5). The presence of apostrophic sonnets have been found to be far greater in this sonnet sequence than in any other British sonnet sequences (Spiller, 1992, p.109). The sonnet sequence reflects in many aspects the thematic and structural pattern of Petrarch's love poetry. Sidney's(2004) work is supposed to have all the signs of Petrarchan poetry in this sonnet sequence, that is, “his anguish, his oscillating feelings, his humility, his idealism, his commitment to serve, [and] her cruelty and his devotion” (Spiller, 1992, p.116). All the same, Sidney (2004) has also been found to deviate from the Petrarchan tradition as “he adds to that the sensuality of Ovid and the French sonneteers, with a colloquialism of style which his contemporaries perceived as very English” (Spiller, 1992, p.116). The rhyme scheme used by Petrarch in a similar poetry sequence depicting his ecstacy and agony in love of a woman, is repeated here and the rhyme scheme used is, “abba abba cdc ece” (Burt and Mikics, 2010, p.40). Sidney has also improvised upon this rhyme scheme by including variant rhyme schemes at several points inside the sonnets (Burt and Mikics, 2010, p.40). Burt and Mikics (2010) have also pointed to the technical finesse of the sonnets in this sequence (p.40). The repitition of words to enhance the drama and the complex use of rhyming words internally to the sonnet is a technique used by Sidney in his sonnets ( Burt and Mikics, 2010, p.40). For example, in the twelfth sonnet, in the second line of the octave, the word, “locks” rhymes with “scapes”, another word within the same line, and also the end-word of same line, rhymes with the end-word of the next line as well (“free”, “be”) (Sidney, 6). This is a poetic task very difficult to achieve but Sidney carries out with quite ease. Similarly, in the lines, “But one worse fault, ambition, I confess, That makes me oft my best friends overpass”, the words, “fault” and “oft” are mutually rhyming and also the words, “confess” and “overpass” are also rhyming with each other (Sidney, 14). The balancing act that Sidney makes in creating “individual” sonnets that stand as “complete” poetry on their own and after this links them with each other in a continuous narrative, has been highly esteemed in literary history (Hamilton, 1977, p.86). Sidney (2004) has been lauded by many as having a “deep-seated instinct for form” in his sonnets (cited in Hamilton, 1977, p.86). It has been observed that the sonnets of Sidney (2004) have been crafted with a better technical perfection than any of the “Elizabethean sonnet collection” (cited in Hamilton, 1977, p.92). Sidney's (2004) sonnets in this sequence have also been noted for their “dramatic urgency and ironic interplay of words” (Spiller, 1992, p.119). The metaphors used by Sidney have been classical examples of the poetic tradition that he inherited (Spiller, 1992, p.119; Hamilton, 1977, p.86). The innovation that Sidney made to sonnet tradition has also been notable. Spiller (1992) has argued that Sidney (2004) “created the first deconstructive lyric persona in the sonnet's history” (p.108). As there is an autobiographical edge to the narrative in this sonnet sequence, the question has been raised whether the speaker in the poetry is the writer himself or a metafictional persona that is reported by the author (Cheney, 2011, p.153). This is a kind of detachment of the 'I' from the poetic text even as the 'I' is narrating the story as well as narrating in first person what the protagonist of the story went through (Spiller, 1992, p.108). Spiller (1992) has called this literary phenomenon, the creation of a “metafiction” within the text (p.108). The three sonnets in question have a content that initially faces a moral question, almost succumbs to it, and then conquers it with the sheer commitment towards the underlying desire for the beloved (Sidney, 2004). Every moral argument, every moral virtue is cast aside in an elaborate process of initially allowing them take over the reins and then cleverly making them fall, using their own inherent logic. The inobedience to virtue is justified through making virtue a slave to the personification of the beloved of the protagonist (Sidney, 2004, p.2). Similarly, inobedience to reason is justified by showing that even reason cannot withstand the not so quantifiable, virtues of the woman in question (Sidney, 2004, p.5). In the 27th sonnet, the complete isolation of the protagonist from the socialising outside world does not seem to be so unnatural just because in the previous sonnets, it is already been well-established that the woman in question has such overpowering moral authority over the state of events and the protagonist. It is observed: Sidney presents Astrophel announcing a change in the origin of English love poetry as an authoritative vehicle for truth: from the conventional exterior origin in the books of other poets to the subjective interior of the poet's own “heart”; from the rational literacy process of imitating other poetry to the emotional process of following his inner feelings; and, more specifically, from the literary image of other poems to the psychological image of Stella in his imagination (Cheney, 2011, p.154). In this manner, Sidney(2004), through this sonnet sequence, paved way to a brave new world of English poetry that bordered on philosohy and raised the beacon of truth. Oscillating between plane verse and the eloquence of sublime poetry, Sidney thus brings together the mundane and the poetic, the self and the otherness. The protagonist and his beloved thus become a dualism in this pattern of thought and the final dejecton suffered by the protagonist becomes a reflection of the existential question of lonelyness and togetherness. References Burt, S. and Mikics, D. 2010, The art of the sonnet, Harvard University Press, Massachusetts. Cheney, P. 2011, Reading sixteenth-century poetry, John Wiley & Sons, London. Hamilton, A.C. 1977, Sir Philip Sidney: A study of his life and works, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Roche, Thomas P. 1989, Petrarch and the English sonnet sequence, AMS Press, Brooklyn, NY. Sidney, Sir. P. 2004, Astrophel and Stella, Kessinger Publishing, Whitefish, Montana. Spiller, Michale.R.G., 1992, Devel sonnet: Intro CL, Taylor & Francis, London. Read More