Like many Renaissance poets who wrote about love, Sidney often uses similes to describe Astrophil or Stella. However, even in 1582, many of the similes that appear in the sonnets were already conventional. They were used over and over again by many poets of the past. They were already common. They were already cliches. Two of the most typical conventional similes are the burning fire and the stormy wind. With the first, the male lover compares his love to a burning fire. His heart is on fire. The flames of passion have consumed him. With the second simile, the male lover compares his sighs to the winds tossing a ship on a stormy sea. The stormy sea suggests the lover's own inward turmoil.
Despite Sidney's use of these conventional similes, however, he is still recognized as producing an original poetic creation. One aspect of Astrophil and Stella that sets it apart from Petrarch's sonnets for Laura is the overall symbolism of the work. In Sidney's sonnet sequence the lover's service to his high lady, that is, Astrophil's service to Stella, symbolizes Sir Philip Sidney's own service to Queen Elizabeth I. Sidney had a particularly strong friendship with the Queen. As mentioned, he even served as a court diplomat. The relationship was such that Queen Elizabeth became angry (and concerned) that Sidney often risked his life in supporting Protestant causes in other lands. As it turned out, she was right to be angry with him over such a matter. After all, it was exactly in this way that Sidney met his own untimely death.
Critics also point out that Sidney's characterization also distinguishes Astrophil and Stella from earlier love sonnets and poetry. Although Petrarch's sonnets do reflect the conflicting moods of the unrequited lover, Sidney's portrayal of Astrophil has a stronger psychological dimension. Astrophil analyzes his problem more thoroughly and more straightforwardly. Sidney takes us into the mind of Astrophil. Sidney provides us with a probing psychological analysis of Astrophil's complex emotions.
The language of Sidney's sonnets also contributes to the originality of the work. One unusual feature in the sequence is the inclusion of dialogue. In some of the poems, we hear Stella's voice. Another distinguishing feature is the use of colloquial speech. Astrophil does not speak in the flowery and ornate language of the Elizabethan court. Rather, his speech is often informal, ordinary, and conversational.
In Sidney's first sonnet, which is written in iambic hexameter, we find the poet searching for artistic inspiration. We find the artist searching for his Muse. The Muses were nine Greek goddesses of ancient times who presided over the arts. In later time periods, artists, especially poets, use the term muse to suggest a spiritual or perhaps even supernatural source of inspiration. Actually, there is a gray area where fiction and fact blend in this poem. The speaker of the sonnets is Astrophil, a fictional character. However, the poet is Sir Philip Sidney. Is it Astrophil or Sidney who is asking for inspiration in this poem? Actually, it seems to be both.
The reader should note that the first sentence of the poem is 8 lines long. These lines, which form the octave, present Astrophil's desire to present his emotions in the form of poetry in order to win Stella's love.
In the first line, Astrophil begins with "loving in truth." From the very beginning the reader should realize that Astrophil's love is true love, a love that is both physical and spiritual. Astrophil is consumed by his love, his passion, for Stella. However, as we soon learn, his love is unrequited. Stella does not return his love. Also in the first line, the word fain means gladly. Astrophil would gladly like to show his love to Stella in poetry. However, he is having difficulty. He is having trouble finding the right words. He lacks inspiration. Astrophil (in lines 2-4) also provides us with another reason why he wants to express his love in poetic form. He hopes, by stages, to win Stella's love.
Astrophil often describes his love in words that denote his negative feelings, such as pain (line 2), woe (line 5), or sorrow. Although Astrophil experiences positive emotions (joy, happiness, and exultation) because of his love for Stella, her rejection of his love causes him great pain and sadness. The reader should note that the mixture of these positive and negative emotions occurs in many of the sonnets.
So, Astrophil wants to win Stella's love. He hopes that this will come gradually, in stages, when she reads his poetry:
In the first quatrain (the first four lines), then, Astrophil presents his purpose for writing these poems. I have to say Astrophil here, and not Sidney, even though Sidney is the real-life poet. In 1582, when Sidney wrote these poems, Penelope Devereux was already married. Thus, Sidney's chances for winning the love of Devereux are over. However, the fictional creation of Stella is unmarried. Astrophil still has a chance to win her love. The poem thus creates a fictional situation that blends the real (Sidney, the poet, searching for inspiration) and the imagined (Astrophil, the lover, hoping to win Stella's love).
In the second quatrain, Astrophil (or Sidney) explains how he read the works of other poets in order to find inspiration. The words fine inventions (line 6) mean great works of poetry, and leaves (line 7) is another word for pages. Thus, Astrophil is saying that he read the pages of many great poets in order to find inspiration.
Sidney uses the metaphor of the rain and
desert (line 8) to explain what he hopes to accomplish. Just as a shower of rain can turn a dry piece of land into a fertile area where fruit and plants can grow, Astrophil hopes that the words of the poets (the rain or showers) will inspire him to produce new ideas (fruit) in his empty mind (the desert).
The third quatrain marks the shift in the poem. The reader should note the first word of this section. Often (but not always) a poet will use a word like but or yet to indicate the shift in direction. Sidney does so here to inform us that, by reading the great works of other poets, Astrophil was unable to find inspiration for his sonnets. Sidney uses both personification and metaphor to describe this situation. Invention (creativity or inspiration) is the child of Nature but only the step-child of Study. In other words, creativity is much more likely to come from nature than from studying (from reading works of other poets). Sidney describes Invention as running away from Study. His studying the great poets did not help him invent any great poetry of his own.
The reader should also note the pun with the word feet (line 11). Feet could literally mean the feet of other poets (strangers), but it can also refer to feet of poetry. An iamb is one foot of poetry. Five iambs can also be referred to as five feet.
At the end of the third quatrain (line 12), Sidney uses a conventional metaphor. Being "great with child" literally means being pregnant and just about ready to give birth. The poet uses the metaphor to describe how Astrophil is ready to give birth to his ideas. However, he still has not found a muse, his inspiration. He is still "helpless" in writing his poems. In the last line, though, Astrophil finds his inspiration. His Muse tells him to look into his own heart. In other words, Astrophil should write what he feels. He should let his own emotions inspire him. This is the natural way to write. Nature is the mother of Invention (line 10).
In the second sonnet, Sidney argues against a typical convention of love poetry. Often, poets will write about how they fell in love "at first sight." In other words, the man took one look at his lady and immediately fell completely in love with her.
Astrophil explains how his love for Stella came slowly, gradually. He uses an allusion to Cupid, the Greek God of Love, to explain that he was not hit randomly by one of Cupid's arrows. Rather, the poet creates a new metaphor, the mine of time (line 3), to explain how his love grew. Like a gold miner who must dig patiently and diligently over a long period of time before he can discover a vein of gold, Astrophil (the miner) took a long time before he discovered Stella's "worth" or value or virtue (the gold).
In this sonnet Astrophil also depicts how his unrequited love for Stella causes him to suffer. Astrophil only has a small piece of the gold mine, "a partial lot" (line 8), because Stella does not return his love. Thus, Astrophil feels like a prisoner (lost liberty) or slave (a simile) who must suffer the tyranny, the cruel demands, of a ruthless tyrant, Unrequited Love (personification).
In the last two lines, the couplet, Astrophil uses an even stronger metaphor to describe his situation. He is like one of the damned in hell. But he writes his poetry (he paints) and describes his emotions while, at the same time, he tries to convince himself of a lie. He tries to believe that all is well. He tries to believe that he is in bliss. The unrequited lover cannot help himself. He knows that his love causes him to suffer, but he is unable to stop loving the lady he adores.