Passion during the Renaissance was a dangerous and treacherous human faculty. To abandon the mind and follow one’s heart was seen as sacrificing one’s reason. Poems during the late Middle Ages regularly followed a Petrarchan outline, using the standard image of love as a vexing experience fated to disappoint. The Petrarchan love convention is one in which the poet expresses his misery over the unrequited love of a woman and the negative way in which she turns down the advances of the poet. Throughout Astrophil and Stella “Sonnet 1” by Sir Philip Sidney and “My Galley” by Thomas Wyatt, the poets both describe their maddening, yet inspiring experience collecting both hope and despair, as well as chance and frustration. In both Astrophil and Stella
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Poets, specifically Sir Philip Sidney, turn their love into poetry as a result of denial from their beloved. In Sonnet 1, Sidney introduces the reader to the poet/ lover, struggling to locate the words that define the agony of his adoration for his beloved, Stella. The lover hopes she will find pleasure in his misery, “That she, dear she, might take some pleasure in my pain,” (Sidney Line 2) and then argues that “Pleasure might cause her to read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win” (Sidney Lines 3-4). The poet/ lover believes that if she were to read his sonnets, she would realize the magnitude of his love and her pity for him would turn into grace or love. The poet reveals that his …show more content…
The Oxford English Dictionary defines pain as “Pain, n. Punishment; penalty; suffering or loss inflicted for a crime or offence” (OED 1). A punishment or penalty is given typically as a result of a negative action. Often, pain is created by the presence of a physical force and/or is a consequence for a wrong doing. However, the pain experienced throughout this poem is created by the absence of the physical force: love, and is felt because of a positive doing, not criminal actions. Sir Philip Sidney experiences the punishment from pain, but also pains himself willingly for his lover. The act of writing a sonnet to persuade his love demonstrates his desperateness, as writing about his beloved pains him physically, emotionally as well as mentally. “Pain, v. To take pains or trouble; to exert oneself with care and attention; to endeavor or strive for a particular result” (OED 1). These two defnitions demonstrate how the poet is both in pain, as well as paining over his beloved. The lover is pained by the failed endeavor of his beloved. Sidney often highlights this emotional appeal, to have to reader and beloved empathize with the pains he is taking. This pain drives the poet to want to be accepted, compelling him to write poetry that people relate, sympathize, and empathize
Poets, specifically Sir Philip Sidney, turn their love into poetry as a result of denial from their beloved. In Sonnet 1, Sidney introduces the reader to the poet/ lover, struggling to locate the words that define the agony of his adoration for his beloved, Stella. The lover hopes she will find pleasure in his misery, “That she, dear she, might take some pleasure in my pain,” (Sidney Line 2) and then argues that “Pleasure might cause her to read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win” (Sidney Lines 3-4). The poet/ lover believes that if she were to read his sonnets, she would realize the magnitude of his love and her pity for him would turn into grace or love. The poet reveals that his …show more content…
The Oxford English Dictionary defines pain as “Pain, n. Punishment; penalty; suffering or loss inflicted for a crime or offence” (OED 1). A punishment or penalty is given typically as a result of a negative action. Often, pain is created by the presence of a physical force and/or is a consequence for a wrong doing. However, the pain experienced throughout this poem is created by the absence of the physical force: love, and is felt because of a positive doing, not criminal actions. Sir Philip Sidney experiences the punishment from pain, but also pains himself willingly for his lover. The act of writing a sonnet to persuade his love demonstrates his desperateness, as writing about his beloved pains him physically, emotionally as well as mentally. “Pain, v. To take pains or trouble; to exert oneself with care and attention; to endeavor or strive for a particular result” (OED 1). These two defnitions demonstrate how the poet is both in pain, as well as paining over his beloved. The lover is pained by the failed endeavor of his beloved. Sidney often highlights this emotional appeal, to have to reader and beloved empathize with the pains he is taking. This pain drives the poet to want to be accepted, compelling him to write poetry that people relate, sympathize, and empathize