1. Sidney Astrophil and Stella Sonnet Italian
Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich
Sonnet
Italian
Sonnet cycle—first recognizable one in English
108 sonnets and 11 songs
Way of looking at a collection of sonnets rather than a “plot”

3. Neoplatonism “Divine Beauty” through an “earthly lover”
“material world is a path to the spiritual world, rather than an obstacle to or diversion from it”
(Murfin and Ray, 292)

4. Petrarchanism--Neoplatonism
Petrarch—14th c. Italian poet, Francesco Petrarca
Sonnet form plus distinctive use of:
Imagery
Figures of speech
Formal style
Petrarchan conceit (exaggerated portrait of lady’s beauty and cruelty)
Hyperbole
Oxymoron

5. Petrarchanism/Neoplatonism
Sidney engages this poetic tradition, but also questions it

6. Sonnet form 14 lines rhymed iambic pentameter
2 forms for Sidney/Shakespeare
Italian/Petrarchan
Abba abba cdc dee (usually)
English/Shakespearean
abab cdcd efef gg
Mapping a sonnet

7. Considering scansion Son 71 (1095 9th)
Who will in fairest booke of nature know
How virtue may best lodged in beauty be,
Let him but learn of love to read in thee,
Stella, those fair lines which true goodness show.
There shall he find all vices overthrow,
Not by rude force, but sweetest sovereignty

8. In-class scansion
Try the next two lines

9. Of reason, from whose light those night-birds fly,
That inward sun in thine eyes shineth so.

10. Sonnet 71
“Give me some food”
Playing with the Neoplatonic tradition

11. Form matters Why choose a sonnet?
What is the connection between form and meaning?

12. Sonnet 1(9th ed. Page 1084-50 Look in thy heart and write
Sonnet is about love, but also about writing and style, about “invention”
Some elements to know: alexandrine (iambic hexameter), “fain” (l. 1), childbirth metaphor,
How does the poem flow?
Does the lady get to speak?

13. Sonnet 31(page 1090 9th ed) Personification of the Moon
Speaker standing outside the courtly world
Opening monosyllables and repetitions

14. Sonnet 9(page 1086-7 9th ed) Petrarchan convention (see also sonnet 6)
“Rich”
Penelope Rich, an idealized love, Queen Elizabeth?

15. Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Form: 3 Quatrains/Couplet
abab cdcd efef gg
The sonnet vogue
Shakespeare as icon and the perils of autobio-crit.

16. Is this a sonnet cycle?

17. The Figures of the Sonnets
The Young Man
The Rival Poet
The Dark Lady

18. The Young Man Who is the Young Man?
What are the implications of autobiographical criticism?

19. The Young Man Many references to time Sonnet 3 (1171, 9th)

20. Tomb of Mary and Elizabeth

23. Poetic form
Sonnet 129 (1183 9th)

24. The Dark Lady Sonnet 130 (p. 1184 9th) Sonnet 127 (p. 1183, 9th)
Often read in relation to Petrarchan convention

25. The Dark Lady
Kim Hall, Things of Darkness

26. Sir francis drake, after he circumnavigated the globe he gave her this as a gift. Compositite materials gathered from all ofvery thd globe, ship with ebony fhull, enamled gold taken form a prize off the pacific coast of Mexico, a diamond from africa. One side is a locket with portrait from Nicolas hilliad. Projects her image as monarch. E often give thisof her self.
Other side is a cameo of sardonyx with an image of an african male superimposed over the profile of a European—not sure if it a regal woman or a kind of Brittania figure. General imperial—global range of african emperor and english empress. Drake saying to Elizabeth, conjoined power of England and African will liberate world from spain. Drake had allined with Cimmaroons runaway african slaves who had intermarried with natives and they had captured a train of spanish plate in Panama. He wanted to make more alliances, Elizabeth planning joing with ruler of Morroro, for example

27. Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby d'Eresby ( ) in an anonymous oil painting. His African servant is following from the right carrying a skull, suggesting this was a posthumous portrait. Grimsthorpe & Drummond Castle Trust/Ray Biggs

28. Cecil calvert, second baron of baltimore, , by gerard soest, child—not sure who that is. Black attendant directs the observes gaze to map of the calvert holdings in maryland complete with family coat of arms

29. William fielding early of denbigh, d. 1643, sir anthony van dyck
William fielding early of denbigh, d. 1643, sir anthony van dyck. Commisioned this portrait after his trip to india

30. The Defence of Poesy Three types of poets p. 958/1052 Vates—Prophets
Philosophical Poets
“Right” poets—”to teach and delight”
(echo of Chaucer’s “sentence and solaas?)

31. Poetry as imaginative literature Poet as “maker” (956)
956/1049

32. Poetry improves humanity
Delivering a golden world (957/1050)
Cyrus (957/1050)
Erected wit/infected will (957/1050)
Poetry draws us to perfection (neoplatonic) (959/1052)
Architectonike (960/1053)

33. Charges Against Poetry
Waste of time
Mother of lies
Nurse of abuse

34. Sidney’s response
“No learning is so good as that which teacheth and moveth to virtue” (967/1068)
“of all writers under the sun the poet is the least liar” (967/1068)

35. Neil Gaiman
“telling lies to tell the truth”
What makes the canon?