In "Sonnet 5" Sidney raises two important thematic topics: (1) the conflict between reason and emotion, and (2) the contrast between spiritual beauty and physical beauty.
The first quatrain of the poem introduces an important Christian concept. Many Christians during the Renaissance believed that Reason is a gift from God. Although we have emotions, passions, and desires that cause us to seek physical pleasures and that cause us to sin, all of us have an even stronger force within us. That force is Reason. Our Reason can control our emotions. Our Reason can cool our passions. Our Reason can stop our desires. At least, that is what Christianity teaches.
The sonnet begins with the expression "it is most true." The expression is repeated later (line 5) and the poet uses a repetition of the word true several times (in lines 9, 12, and 14) throughout the poem. The poet uses this expression and the use of repetition to let us know that Astrophil agrees with and believes in the statements that he makes. Astrophil believes that Reason is a gift from God and can control the passions. In the first quatrain (line 2) the poet uses the expressions "inward light" and "heavenly part" as synonyms for Reason. Reason is a light that can brighten our darker emotions and our shady passions.
Reason is heavenly because it comes from God.
Therefore, Reason ought to be (or should be) King over our Emotions (line 3). Our Emotions should be the subjects or servants of this king. The speaker tells us, metaphorically, that when our Emotions swerve from (line 3) or break the rules made by Reason, they are only hurting themselves (line 4). They are only striving to produce their own pain (the word smart here means pain). In other words, when we allow our emotions to take control over our bodies, when we act unreasonably, we end up hurting ourselves. A simple example of this is a glutton (a person who loves to eat too much) who eats so much that he later experiences indigestion and stomach cramps. If the glutton had used his reason, he would have realized that he was eating too much. So, his own emotion, his desire for food, brought him pain.
The poet also suggests that when emotions break the rules of reason, such emotions are "rebels to nature" (line 4). Here Sidney is suggesting that our natural inclination or tendency is to follow our reason. Reason is a natural quality within all of us. It is part of human nature. We should not rebel against our reason. In the second quatrain, Sidney uses a complex metaphor and an allusion to Cupid, the God of Love. The basic idea of these lines is to suggest that physical love, or earthly love, is simply one of those passions that we can control with the use of our reason. Physical love is something we create in our heads or "we carve for ourselves" (line 6). The poet compares the lovers (or "fools") to worshippers and the heart to a temple or church. The "good god," Cupid, causes both the church (the heart) and the churchman (the lover) to starve (line 8). In other words, for the unrequited lover, his heart is empty because he receives no love in return. Therefore, the lover himself starves: he languishes, he becomes thin and weak. He cannot eat because of the great sorrow and sadness that he feels.
In the third quatrain the poet contrasts "true beauty" (which is "virtue" or spiritual beauty) to "this beauty" (which is physical beauty or earthly beauty). Physical beauty is just a shadow ("a shade") of Spiritual beauty. In other words, physical beauty is not substantial. It is not solid. It is practically nothing. Physical beauty is "mortal": it will die. Spiritual beauty, on the other hand, lasts forever. Physical beauty is made of earthly "elements" (earth, air, water, and fire). It is superficial. Spiritual beauty is made of finer stuff.
At the end of the poem (in the last 3 lines), Sidney uses the traditional (and medieval) Christian metaphor that all people are pilgrims on a journey whose ultimate destination is Heaven (our country). Thus far in this sonnet Astrophil has argued the following:
Yet, despite firmly believing in all three of these ideas, Astrophil states, in the last line of the sonnet, that he must love Stella. Thus, Astrophil is (1) allowing his emotions to dominate his reason, (2) pursuing physical love to his own harm, and (3) choosing physical beauty over virtue.
Astrophil is still very much the slave to love.
"Sonnet 6" is a companion poem to "Sonnet 1". In both poems Sidney discusses the art of writing poetry. Both sonnets are also written in iambic hexameter. Sonnet 6 differs from the first sonnet, though, because in "Sonnet 6" Sidney discusses the approaches used by other poets who write about love and contrasts their approaches to his own.
Sidney begins the poem with the expression "some lovers." To be more precise, we should instead use "some poets who write about love." This first group of poets uses the oxymoron (describing a word with its opposite) to describe the state or condition of the lover:
Hopeful Fear |
Dear (or Precious) Wound |
Reasonable Desire |
Fair (or Gentle) Storm |
Hellish Pain Living Death |
Freezing Fire |
Al of these terms can become metaphors for the Happy Woe or the Sorrowful Joy that Astrophil feels because of his love for Stella.
However, Astrophil (or Sidney) does not use the oxymoron. Nor does he use the method of the second group of poets (lines 5-6). These poets use mythological allusions. In ancient mythology Jove (another name for the Roman god Jupiter or the Greek god Zeus) came down to earth in many strange forms (as a bull, a swan, and even a gentle rain) in order to seduce mortal women. Often in their verses poets will compare the power of their love or desire to that of Jupiter or Zeus.
A third group of poets (lines 7-8) uses pastoral allegory to express their love. In these poems the lover is usually a humble shepherd who, while he watches over his sheep, complains or sings about the woman who will not return his love. In such poems the shepherd usually symbolizes a nobleman (of "royal blood"); and often the speech of the shepherd is more urban than rural and more educated than colloquial.
Finally, a fourth group of poets (lines 9-11) uses the dolce stil nuovo or the "sweet new style" of early 14th century Italy. Such poetry is usually musical, straightforward, and highly emotional. The metaphors can be quite direct: the lover's tears are the ink that he uses to write his poems. Or the movement of his pen as he writes down his poems is his pain.
In the last three lines (the shift coming at line 11) Astrophil contrasts his approach to the four approaches used by these other poets. Although Astrophil feels his love as deeply as any one of these other poets, he speaks simply and directly. He does not need a more complicated approach to declare his love. He feels that he only has to say, "I love Stella" (line 14), and all of his emotions are expressed simply by the tremble of his voice.
In this sonnet, then, Sidney advocates the use of simple, direct, colloquial speech for the lover who is expressing his feelings.
During the Renaissance in England many poets and artists declared that the most beautiful women were "fair." In fact, the word fair meant both (1) beautiful and (2) having fair features. Fair features are physical features that are light in color: blond hair, blue eyes, and white skin. Thus, when a poet uses the word fair, he often means that his lady has fair features and that she is also quite beautiful.
Stella, on the other hand, does not have fair eyes. Her eyes are black. Yet, despite the contradiction to the Renaissance standard of beauty, Astrophil declares that Stella's eyes is her most beautiful feature. In "Sonnet 7" Astrophil asks this question: why are Stella's eyes black? Astrophil poses several possible answers, but the reader should notice that all of his first three answers end in question marks (lines 4, 8, and 11). Astrophil is not sure whether these answers are correct or not. However, Astrophil's fourth answer ends with a period. For Astrophil his fourth answer seems, in his opinion, to be the most likely one to be correct.
In the first two lines Astrophil asks his question. Why are Stella's eyes black? However, he personifies Nature as a goddess whose chief work, whose best creation, is Stella's eyes. So the question really is this: why did Nature make Stella's eyes black? Astrophil also adds an oxymoron to the question. He describes her eyes (or beams) as bright (line 2). In other words, he describes her eyes as bright black. Since bright suggests emitting a large amount of light and since black suggests the absence of light, bright black is, then an oxymoron. The use of an oxymoron is appropriate here. Since fair also means blond or white as well as beautiful, the idea of calling a black object beautiful is something of a contradiction. Stella's eyes are fair (if one means beautiful), but they are not fair (if one means blue or some other light color).
Astrophil's first answer to the question comes at the end of the first quatrain (in lines 3-4). The pronoun she refers to Nature, still personified. The poet uses the simile of comparing Nature to a clever painter who wishes to create a special artistic masterpiece by mixing the opposites of black and white, of dark and light. In other words, perhaps Nature made Stella's eyes black because she (Nature) wanted to show her artistic skill. As an artist, Nature wanted to show that she can even make black beautiful.
The second quatrain poses Astrophil's second
possible answer. Once again, the pronoun she (in line 5) refers to Nature. Astrophil suggests that perhaps Nature wanted to protect the sight of those people who gazed directly into Stella's eyes (line 6). If Nature had made Stella's eyes a light color, then Stella's eyes would be "sun-like" (line 8). They would be so bright that they would dazzle and blind anybody who looked directly at them. If Stella's eyes were so intensely bright, she would have to wear a "veil" (line 7) over eyes all of the time so that no one would be harmed. In other words, if Stella's eyes were any color other than black, her eyes would be too beautiful for mortal sight.
The third possible answer comes in the next three lines (9-11). Once again, the pronoun she refers to Nature. In these lines Astrophil suggests that Nature wants to reveal to people that black actually is the most beautiful color of all. This is, of course, quite contrary to what many people in Renaissance England believed. Black is the combination of everything beautiful (line 11).
As noted, Astrophil is uncertain about these first three answers. He seems far more confident in his fourth answer (lines 12-14). Again the reader should note that the shift comes in line 12.
Black is also traditionally, in Western culture, the color of mourning, the color of death. In Astrophil's fourth answer the lover poses that Nature wanted to give Love (also personified) a mourning garment (or outfit). The beauty of the eyes is the central feature of love. When a man is in love, he will gaze into the eyes of his lady. Thus, Nature gave Stella black eyes to symbolize both love and death.
Astrophil explains this idea in the last line. Whenever men stare into Stella's eyes, they bleed (feel pain) and symbolically die because of the love that they feel, a love that is unrequited. This answer, certainly, is true in Astrophil's case. He is suffering, he is dying, because Stella does not return his love. Thus, the blackness of her eyes symbolizes both love and death.
As noted in "Sonnet 5," the conflict of Reason versus Emotion was an important topic to many Renaissance poets. Sidney returns to this conflict in "Sonnet 10." This time Reason is personified and is in direct physical conflict with Love (the most powerful of emotions) and Sense (which signifies the five senses, the means by which we are able to experience the emotions). Essentially, Astrophil in this sonnet is asking or making a plea to Reason to leave, to go away, from matters that deal with emotions. He is asking Reason not to interfere with his love.
The poem can easily be divided into two parts: the octave and the sestet. In the octave, Astrophil makes his request to Reason.
In the first line, Astrophil tells Reason that he is well served. Astrophil means that he, Astrophil, is still allowing his own reason to control his passions and emotions. But the second line adds that Astrophil's reason is in conflict (brabling means to quarrel or to fight) with his emotions (sense and love). In other words, Astrophil knows that he would be acting reasonably if he were to forget all about Stella; but his love for her is so great that he does not wish to be reasonable.
In the third and fourth lines Astrophil names some other locations, some other places, which, he feels, would be more suitable for Reason (still personified). He tells reason to go to the Mount Helicon, the hill where the Muses reside. The Muses, as you may remember, are the nine minor Greek goddesses who bring inspiration to artists. Artists, writers, historians, and musicians need to be guided by reason in order to produce fine works of art. Therefore, Reason is fit (or appropriate) company for the nine Muses. Astrophil also suggests that Reason should find a shady spot next to the Tree of
Knowledge, "Nature's choicest tree." This is a Biblical allusion to the story of Adam and Eve. Eve ate some fruit from the Tree of Knowledge (the knowledge of good and evil) and, by so doing, disobeyed God's only commandment. If Eve had used her reason, instead of her emotions or desires, she would not have eaten the fruit. And God would not have punished her. Thus, Reason should stay by this tree.
In the second quatrain, Astrophil also suggests that Heaven is also an appropriate place for Reason to dwell. Of course, this makes sense. Reason comes from God. So, Astrophil asks why does Reason till (like a farmer) or work on "our thorny soil." The word soil here has two meanings. It could refer to the ground beneath our feet, and so it is a metonymy (a kind of metaphor) for this planet Earth. But by "soil" Astrophil could also be referring to the human body. Poetically speaking, the human body is made of soil or dirt or clay. So, Astrophil is really asking why Reason interferes with his body, which feels and loves. Reason should, according to Astrophil, only concern itself with the mind ("powers of thought") and not the body. The word will (in line 8) means desire or emotions. Astrophil is thus stating that matters of love should be ruled by Emotions, not Reason.
In the third quatrain the poet produces an image of Reason having a sword-fight with Love and Sense. Reason appears to be winning, initially. However, Reason's fighting soon comes to an end.
Stella's "rays" (her presence, her beauty, and her virtue) stop or prevent ("foil") the clever sword-fighting ("cunning fence") of Reason.
Like a knight bowing before a queen, Reason kneels (gets down on his knees) before Stella. Astrophil ends the sonnet by saying, in essence, that reason is a weaker force than his love. If love is a superior force to reason, then it must be reasonable to love Stella.
The imagery may also suggest, though,
Astrophil's experience over a period of time. Initially, when he first met Stella, he acted reasonably. He could control his emotions. But eventually Astrophil could not stop his will (his desire, his emotions) from taking over his reason. Astrophil has become irrational. He is in love.
In a way, Astrophil is trying to believe a lie. He wants to believe that his love for Stella makes sense. He wants to believe that his love is reasonable. But deep down inside his soul, he knows that is not true.
In "Sonnet 16" Astrophil explains that a person cannot really understand a lover unless that person has experienced true and genuine love. Astrophil uses himself as an example. The two parts of this poem are divided by time: in the first part (lines 1-9) Astrophil describes his attitude about love before he met Stella. In the second part (lines 10-14) he tells how his attitude changed after meeting Stella.
In the first quatrain Astrophil explains that, in the past, whenever he saw extremely beautiful women, his spirits (his youthful energy or we might even say his hormones) boiled or became excited. At that time Astrophil felt that this emotion that he was experiencing was love.
In the second quatrain, though, Astrophil realizes that he does not act like other lovers. He states that the emotion (the "flames") he felt did not make him "restless." In other words, he was able to sleep peacefully at night; and he did not spend his days moaning and crying about the woman he had seen. Thus, Astrophil could not understand why other men in love (line 6) -- and here we should specify that these men have an unrequited love -- would whine or cry about their feelings. At the time, Astrophil considered such men to be like babies, crying because a little pin or needle pricked (barely cut) their skin. Astrophil did not understand their feelings. He could only judge "love's pain" (line 8), the emotional hurt, by his own experience ("by my love"), which was not an experience of true love.
Astrophil uses the metaphor of the "young lion" (line 9) to describe his experience with love. A very young lion cub will not harm a human. It is gentle. But when that lion grows up, it will be quite dangerous. Love is the same way. Young love, or untrue love, is not dangerous. It does not cause the hurt or pain that mature love, or true love, can cause. Thus, Astrophil is explaining that his earlier experiences with love did not cause him any pain because, he finally realized, those experiences were not ones of true love.
In the last part of the poem, Astrophil states that now that he has met Stella, he understands the condition of the unrequited lover quite well. He uses another metaphor to describe his experience. Being in love is like taking poison. A person cannot really understand how dangerous poison is (and how much harm and pain that poison can cause) unless that person takes poison himself or herself. Similarly, a person cannot understand the pain given by unrequited love unless that person has experienced such an emotion personally.