1. How Would You Teach It: “Thou Blind Man’s Mark” by Sir Philip Sidney
AP English Literature Reading
Louisville, Kentucky
June 2012
Brenda Buckley-Kuhn
Pinewood Preparatory School
Summerville, South Carolina

2. Sir Philip Sidney Born: 1554 Penshurst in Kent Died: 1586 Netherlands
Knight, soldier, poet, friend, patron
“O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword;The expectancy and rose of the fair state,The glass of fashion and the mould of form,The observed of all observers. . .” (Hamlet 3.1)
Elizabethan’s ideal courtier: balancing public duty versus private humiliation
True Renaissance [Hu]Man
Petrarchan Sonneteer: “thoughts of his beloved drive mundane matters from his mind”
Yet many sonnets show Sidney’s preoccupation with politics, court tensions, and foreign policy
"Among the gilded youth of Elizabethan England, no one was more golden than Philip Sidney. Courtier, poet, soldier, diplomat—he was one of the most promising young men of his time." Biographer Allen Stewart
“Sidney’s face was ‘spoiled with pimples’
says Ben Johnson “wryly distancing himself from the virtual Sidney cult that had arisen in the years after his death.” (1619)
What historians remember
What students and nay-sayers will remember

3. Major Works 1578 The Lady of May, (masque for Queen Elizabeth)
Fortress of Perfect Beauty, long fiction
ca Astrophel and Stella (published 1591)
his finest work; sonnet cycle
1590 Arcadia, 1590, revised epic prose romance
(also titled The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia)
ca The Defence of Poesie, (published 1595)
(also titled An Apology for Poetry)
1598 Certain Sonnets
(No. 31 “Thou Blind Man’s Mark”)
ca.1580­-1588 The Psalmes of David
(with Mary Sidney Herbert)
A&Stella “starlover” and “star”
emphasizes the lover’s state of mind and soul,
the contradictory impulses, intense desires, and frustrations that haunt him.”
Defense =the major work of Renaissance literary criticism

4. Sir Philip Sidney: Education
1564 Shrewsbury School (age 9-10); stern Calvinist background; Humanistic education: Latin classics
Christ Church Oxford; no degree
Continental travel with scholar Hubert Languet
met kings, queens, philosophers, theologians, poets
1572 King Charles IX made him “Baron de Sidency”
in recognition of his personal appeal--Protestantism
cultivates relationships powerful English Protestants
1572 Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day (Paris)
Catholic mobs incited by Queen Catherine de Médicis
50,000 Hugenots (French Protestants) killed
(over one month)
ardent Protestantism strengthened;
Queen Elizabeth orders his return; Germany
Laertes’ gentleman’s education—travel the continent; network; prepare for a role representing the state

5. Sidney’s Family: Great Expectations
Mother: Lady Mary Dudley Sidney
Lady-in-waiting to the Queen Elizabeth I
sister of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester,
benevolent influence
face severely disfigured by smallpox; wore a mask
Certain Sonnets 8-11 lament a beautiful face damaged by disease
Father: Sir Henry Sidney
President of the Council of Wales
Lord Deputy of Ireland under Elizabeth (three times)
one of the queen's closest advisers.
Leicester--most powerful of all the queen’s favorites
Mom contracted small pox while caring for Elizabeth
Sonnets 8-11

6. Sidney’s Family Sister: Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
educated at home; poet and writer
published Philip’s work after his death
marriage to Henry Herbert, second Earl of Pembroke = great social advantage
produces a composite edition of Arcadia
finished Philip’s work on Psalms
hosts Sidney’s Literary Circle, at Wilton estate (E. Spenser, F. Greville, P. Rich)
Philip only wrote a 43 psalms; she rewrote 107 of the 150 total
Fulke Greville = biograher; Edmund Spenser; Lady Devereux Rich

7. Political Career and Court Politics: The Perfect Courtier
Member of Parliament; cupbearer to queen
Assists father with Irish estates.
Protestant League Proposal-William I of Orange
Open letter opposing queen’s projected marriage
to Duke of Anjou, Roman Catholic heir to French throne;
Dismissed from court; Retires to Wilton Estate to write
Attempts to join Drake’s West Indian expedition; denied by Queen
Appointed Governor of Flushing in Holland
Fought Spanish in Zupten, Holland
Thigh wound; dies 26 days later of gangrene
Battle gallantly: offers water to dying soldier saying,
“Thy necessity is yet greater than mine”
Composed a poem while dying; had it performed by his deathbed:
"La Cuisse Rompue" (“The Broken Thigh”)
Lavish funeral procession in England; almost bankrupted father-in-law Francis Walshingham, head of Queen’s secret service
Pressures of politics and Elizabeth I’s court influence Sidney’s poetry
Perfect Courtier: Conflict between public duty versus private humiliation
Lyrics set to music and sung

8. Sidney’s Courtly Loves: Desired and Denied
Proposed marriage with Anne Cecil,
Sidney deemed too poor
Anne married Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford
1576 Betrothed to Penelope Devereux, queen’s godchild
(supposed basis for Stella of Astophil and Stella)
Penelope marries Lord Robert Rich
1577 William I of Orange offered his daughter’s hand; Queen Elizabeth denied the marriage
1583 Married Frances Walsingham
Daugher, Elizabeth
Sir William Cecil Leading member of Queen’s Privy Council
Wm I= foreign royalty; no match for her courtier
Penelope marries against her will; bad marriage; illegit child

9. Sidney’s Desires Political Appointments Love Wealth Writing
Sidney’s Circle
Appointments
Wealth—Sidney=Robert Dudley’s (Earl of Leicester's) heir presumptive
countess of Leicester (say “Lester”)bore the earl a son, thereby depriving Sidney of both lands and title that he stood to inherit as.
Circle = sister, Spenser,

10. The Prompt In the following poem by Sir Philip Sidney
( ), the speaker addresses the subject of
desire. Read the poem carefully. Then write a well-
developed essay in which you analyze how poetic
devices help to convey the speaker’s complex
attitude toward desire.
Prompt Clues:
Sidney--Renaissance
Renaissance;
English Counter Reformation; Mary
Elizabeth I
Which poetic devices?
Complex=more than one

11. Two Rhetorical Parts of an Argument
Sonnet Traits Review
Sonnets = lyrics---they convey intense emotion
14 lines; iambic pentameter; two rhetorical parts
Italian/Petrarchan Octave (volta) Sestet
abba abba cdcdcd or cdecde
English/Shakespearean 3 Quatrains (volta) Couplet
abab cdcd efef gg
Spenserian 3 Quatrains (volta) Couplet
abab bcbc cdcd ee
Sidney 2 Quatrains (volta) 2 Tercets*
(Quatorzain) abab baba bcc bcc
*(always ending in a couplet)
Volta (turn) = main shift in all sonnets
Two Rhetorical Parts of an Argument
Question—Answer
Problem—Solution
Don’t just label; analyze how the rhyme scheme develops meaning
Use the rhyme scheme to analyze the argument
From the French quatorze (fourteen), a quatorzain is a poem similar to the sonnet. It consists of 14 rhymed iambic lines divided into two tercets (a group of three lines of verse) and two quatrains (a group of four lines of verse), and always ending in a couplet (unlike sonnets, which do not always do so). Technically, most of the Elizabethan sonnet sequences were truly composed of quatorzains, not sonnets, but few 16th-century poets made the distinction (an exception being Michael Drayton). Some critics also believe that Sir Philip Sidney employed the form deliberately in his collection Certain Sonnets, which contains a miscellany of forms. Later poets, such as John Donne, clarified the two forms.

12. “Thou Blind Man’s Mark”: Quatorzain Rhyme Scheme
Thou snare, a
Fond thought; b
Band care; a
Thou wrought; b
Desire. . . bought, b
With ware; a
Too brought, b
Who prepare a
But sought; b
In aspire; c
In fire; c
For taught— b
Within hire, c
Desiring desire. c

13. What Do You Want Your Students to See?
Who is the speaker? Who is addressed? What is the situation?
Poetic devices? What are the attitudes? How do you know?
Poetic Terminology
Complexity: (more than one) of Attitude toward desire
Irony: Title--What is a blind man’s mark (target)? Final couplet
Classical Allusion: Cupid (blind man)
Structure: sonnet; shift; recognize problem/solution argument; irony of final couplet
Figurative Language: alliteration, apostrophe, personification, metaphors
Imagery: Not just visual
Rhetorical Devices: repetition, parallelism, anaphora (repetition of initial words, phrases),
puns, paradoxes/opposites, chiasmus, catalog, juxtaposition, asyndeton
Syntactical: anastrophe (inversion); length of line
Point of View: 1st; 2nd person familiar (thou, thee, thy, thine)
Analysis: Use poetry terminology and textural support; show HOW you know
Frank’s question to TL’s
This was year of no list; Here’s a list
Asyndeton “We came, we saw, we conquered. . .”
Anaphora Repetition at the beginning of phrases
Modern English has dropped a set of pronouns and verbs called the "familiar" or "thee and thou" forms once used among close friends and family and to children, inferiors, animals, and inanimate objects. These old forms did, though, survive into Elizabethan England and appear frequently in Shakespeare.
Imperatives are in 2nd person; commands; accusatory

14. English Renaissance: Events and Rulers 1485-1603
1485 Henry VII begins Tudor dynasty
1509 Accession of Henry VIII
1517 Protestant Reformation
1534 Henry VIII declares himself head of English church
Mary (Catholic) takes English throne, persecutes Protestants
Publication of Tottel’s Songs and Sonnets (Wyatt; Howard)
1558 Accession of Elizabeth I (Protestant)
Catholic and Protestant extremists for Eliz to deal with

15. From Medieval to Renaissance Thinking
Medieval England Renaissance England
authority figures individuals
Pope heads church; monarch heads church
monarch heads state and state
happiness in the next life happiness in this life
submission to authority questioning authority
public pageantry of court private Protestant piety
limited literacy rising literacy; Humanism
Greek and Roman Classics
Rebirth of learning
Individuals are perfectible
Gr and Roman

16. Poetry Analysis Cheat Sheet
LEAD (Diction Analysis)
L=Low or Informal (dialect, slang, jargon)
E=Elevated or Formal
A=Abstract or Concrete
D=Denotation or Connotation
Monosyllabic Polysyllabic
Colloquial (Slang) Informal (Conversational)
Formal (Literary) Old-Fashioned/Antiquated
Euphonious Cacophonous
(Any new words? Look them up!)
Perrine’s Question
Who is the speaker?
Who is addressed?
What is the situation?
What is the tone?
Are there any shifts?
Other Poetry Elements
form (e.g., sonnet, sestina)
figurative language: figures of speech
figures of sound
rhyme scheme meter
rhetoric syntax
symbols details
Imagery:
visual tactile
gustatory auditory
olfactory organic
kinetic kinesthetic
***HOW does the language convey the COMPLEX TONE, MEANING, AND THEME?****_________________________
TONE
HOT Tone words convey emotion
COMPLEX = MORE THAN ONE
(+ ) (-) IRONY HUMOR________________
TP-CASTT DIDLS
T=title D=Diction
P=paraphrase I=Imagery
C=connotation D=Details
A=attitude L=Language
S=shifts S=Sentence Structure
T=title
T=theme

17. “Thou Blind Man’s Mark”
Thou blind man’s mark,1 thou fool’s self-chosen snare,
Fond fancy’s scum, and dregs of scattered thought;
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care;
Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought;
Desire, desire! I have too dearly bought,
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware;
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should my mind to higher things prepare.
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought;
In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire;
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire;
For virtue hath this better lesson taught—
Within myself to seek my only hire,2
Desiring naught but how to kill desire.
1target 2reward
Robert Reads
Walk through the poem; paraphrase; point out observations
Octave vs Sestet overall differences.
Octave= critical of desire and its powerful yet destructive abilities; Condesceding “Thou” ; 2nd person;
catalog of metaphors; problem of desire; more alliteration; emphasize the imagery, despising tone; vices of desire listed
Repetition of Vain (in vain-hopeless) and vain—(proud vanity); Sestet—what desire attempted to do to the speaker, yet unsuccessful
Sestet temptations of desire thwarted, defeated; deceptiveness of image thou kindlest all thy smoky fire;
The absolute solution lies within the speaker; emphasized by ending couplet; the lessons of virtue taught speaker to seek his own reward and focus, desire the ultimate destruction: to destroy desire

18. Beginning Analysis: Diction, Imagery, Language
Circle HOT tone words (nouns, adjectives, adverbs)
Bracket imagery
Box figurative language
Underline other observations
(e.g., repetition, alliteration, parallelism, point of view)
Categorize—What are the effects?
How do students begin to analyze poetry; Sonnets are a great beginning because of the conventions
Annotation and planning—this is the first year we can see what used to be the green booklets.

19. Poetry Analysis: Diction
Thou blind man’s mark, thou fool’s self-chosen snare, A
Fond fancy’s scum, and dregs of scattered thought; B
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care; A
Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought; B
Desire, desire! I have too dearly bought, B
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware; A
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought, B
Who should my mind to higher things prepare. A
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought; B
In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire; C
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire; C
For virtue hath this better lesson taught— B
Within myself to seek my only hire, C
Desiring naught but how to kill desire. C

20. Imagery and Alliteration
Thou blind man’s mark,1 thou fool’s self-chosen snare,
Fond fancy’s scum, and dregs of scattered thought;
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care;
Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought;
Desire, desire! I have too dearly bought,
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware;
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should my mind to higher things prepare.
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought;
In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire;
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire;
For virtue hath this better lesson taught—
Within myself to seek my only hire,2
Desiring naught but how to kill desire.
1target 2reward

21. “Thou Blind Man’s Mark”: Metaphors and Anastrophe Thou = Desire
Thou blind man’s mark,1 thou fool’s self-chosen snare,
Fond fancy’s scum, and dregs of scattered thought;
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care;
Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought;
Desire, desire! I have too dearly bought,
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware;
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should my mind to higher things prepare.
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought;
In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire;
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire;
For virtue hath this better lesson taught—
Within myself to seek my only hire,2
Desiring naught but how to kill desire.
1target 2reward
Inversion = anastrophe
Scum floats at the top; dregs—sediment that drifts to the bottom; dregs of society; last bit of wine
Not just the scattered thoughts, but the dregs—the worst—of those scattered thoughts
Metaphors often used to characterize or personify desire
Anastrophe stresses the object over the subject; the effect emphasized—End of octave

22. “Thou Blind Man’s Mark”: Repetition and Parallelism
Thou blind man’s mark,1 thou fool’s self-chosen snare,
Fond fancy’s scum, and dregs of scattered thought;
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care;
Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought;
Desire, desire! I have too dearly bought,
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware;
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should my mind to higher things prepare.
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought;
In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire;
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire;
For virtue hath this better lesson taught—
Within myself to seek my only hire,2
Desiring naught but how to kill desire.
1target 2reward
Inversion = anastrophe
Scum floats at the top; dregs—sediment that drifts to the bottom; dregs of society; last bit of wine
Not just the scattered thoughts, but the dregs—the worst—of those scattered thoughts
Metaphors often used to characterize or personify desire
Irony of last three lines: Chiasmus Repetition of ideas in inverted order
Repetition of grammatical structures in inverted order
Virtue taught the lesson; w/I myself is my only reward; desire nothing—but how to kill desire
Anastrophe stresses the object over the subject; the effect emphasized—End of octave; desire brings worthless wares, items; causes speaker to value worthless wares--as one asleep; muddles thought—TONE; attitude of speaker toward desire and its treatment of him
Sestet: Repetition and parallelism emphasize defeated, thwarted desire “in vain”=unsuccessful; “vain things”=vanity; silly, foolish, irrelevant; ability of the speaker to triumph;
Ironic twist—did the speaker triumph in the last line—desire required to kill desire; desiring naught=pun—desire nothing; continue the line; desire needed.

23. Evidence for the Best Argument
Which language elements reveal meaning the best?
Analyze and explicate;
don’t merely list observations
Jane Schaeffer’s Chunk Ratio:
Chunk = 1 CD: 2-3 CM’s
(CD = Concrete Detail CM = Commentary)
Use 2-3 chunks per paragraph.

24. Show How You Know Author uses x to reveal y, implying z.
x = language element (quote it)
y = effect, meaning, tone
z = theme, thoughtful inference
Sidney uses the repetition of the words “ in vain” in the sestet to emphasize the malicious yet unsuccessful attempts of desire to deceive and mislead the speaker. “Vain,” also used as an adjective in the line “to vain things aspire” to pun upon connotation of vain meaning excessive pride or vanity. This implies the speakers knows he is susceptible to desire’s temptations, but knowing this does not make the resisting less difficult.

25. 1579 Puritan Attacks on Poesy: The School of Abuse
“[W]e who have both sense, reason, wit and understanding . . .
Let us but shut our eyes to poets, pipers, and players, pull our feet back from resort to theaters and turn away from the beholding of vanity, the greatest storm of abuse will be overblown. . .”
Stephan Gosson The School of Abuse
Gosson’s Pamphet
attacks actors, playwrights, and poets
criticizes the social and moral disorder in fiction
views literature as an immoral, corrupting influence
labels fiction writing as potentially immoral
deems fiction as irresponsible and unrealistic
Gossom’s Dedication:
"To the right Noble Gentleman,
Master Philip Sidney, Esquire,
Stephen Gosson wisheth health
of body, wealth of mind...“
Opposition to poetry
Written he retired to Wilton he writes most of his works
1579 Puritans were quick to criticize poesy (literature, both prose and poetry)
did not understand
Gossom was an unsuccessful poet, playwright, act who turns Puritan pastor
Sir Philip Sidney is not amused.

26. Parallel Poetry Objections: 2012 Generation Text and 1579 Puritans
Sidney’s Repsonse:The Defense of Poesy: Generation Text and 1579 Puritans
Parallel Poetry Objections: 2012 Generation Text and 1579 Puritans
Generation Text:
Why read literature?
Why analyze poetry?
How will this help me?
“I don’t get poetry.”
Despite 433 years and two different countries, Sir Philip Sidney and I share a common battle: We both work to Defend the value writing, reading, and analyzing poetry
1st, most significant piece of English Lit Crit during the English Renaisannce
In 1579 Gosson began writing the antitheater tracts for which he is now known. His first pamphlet, The School of Abuse (1579), was an attack on actors, playwrights, and poets that criticized the social and moral disorder of the theater
Gosson—failed playwright and poet turned moralist; militant Protestantism; Represents Puritans who wish to censor, protect people from literature’s corrupting influence

27. Sidney’s Response: The Defense of Poesy (An Apology for Poetry)
Poesy = literature, poetry and prose
Literature is dignified and an effective social teaching tool
Poetry was the first source of human inspiration
Poetry has imaginative and moral value
Ancient cultures revered poets, calling them prophets and makers
“vates” “poietes”
(Romans) (Greeks)
Unlike other arts, poetry does not depend on nature
and is therefore “uniquely free” to take part in the divine act of
creation.
Poetry is the art of creating metaphorically—Aristotle’s “mimesis”
Poetry presents vices and virtues better than nature,
teaching, delighting, and moving readers simultaneously
Human inspiration of ancient worlds
Poetry therefore is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle terms it in the word mimesis--that is to say a representing, counter-feiting, or figuring forth to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture with this end, to teach and delight."
Poetry presents vices and virtue in a livlier, more affecting way than nature does, teaching, delighting and moving the reader simultaneously
(An Apology for Poetry)

28. Generation Text: In Defense of Poesy
Reading, writing, and thinking
Active, analytical reading
Problem solving and critical thinking
Organizational skills
Transference of poetry analysis skills to other disciplines
Norton Anthology of Literature
End quotes from “The Defense of Poesy”
21st century learners will have to be problem solvers. They will not settle into a job for life. Poetry is a vehicle for teaching analysis

29. Parallel Poety Donne’s Holy Sonnets:
10 “Death, Be not Proud”—death of death;
14 “Batter My Heart”—defeat of
“The Broken Heart”
Shakespeare’s “Sylvia” from Two Gentlemen of Verona (“What light is light if Sylvia be not seen. . .”)—similar use of repetition, puns, and parallelism
Shakespeare Sonnets (see 129) and Soliloquies

30. Analysis Activities Four Corners Activity SMART Board teams
Flash Annotation/Quick Plan
Poetry Journals: Which language element is the strongest? What does it convey? How?

31. Defense of Poetry: Sidney’s Parting Curse
From The Defense of Poesy:
Perhaps some readers (Gossom and poesy haters) “cannot hear the planet-like music of poetry.”
If so, then if the reader has
“so earth-creeping a mind that it cannot lift itself up to look to the sky of poetry” then “I must send you in the behalf of all poets:—that while you live in love, and never get favor for lacking skill of a sonnet; and when you die, your memory die from the earth for want of an epitaph.”
Sidney concludes by entertaining the thought that his reader “cannot hear the planet-like music of poetry.” If that is the case, if the reader has “so earth-creeping a mind that it cannot lift itself up to look to the sky of poetry” then “I must send you in the behalf of all poets:—that while you live in love, and never get favor for lacking skill of a sonnet; and when you die, your memory die from the earth for want of an epitaph.”
Poetry= sidney’s term for imaginative literature-prose fiction and poetry
Poetry is Sidney’s term for all imaginative literature

32. Sir Philip Sidney: Internet Meme and Blog
David Tennant in places he shouldn’t be spin off
Meme
1976 Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined this term in The Selfish Gene. Near rhyme with “gene.” term for an idea considered as a replicator, especially with the connotation that memes parasitise people into propagating them much as viruses do.
Memes can be considered the unit of cultural evolution. Ideas can evolve in a way analogous to biological evolution. Some ideas survive better than others; ideas can mutate through, for example, misunderstandings; and two ideas can recombine to produce a new idea involving elements of each parent idea.
Sidney concludes by entertaining the thought that his reader “cannot hear the planet-like music of poetry.” If that is the case, if the reader has “so earth-creeping a mind that it cannot lift itself up to look to the sky of poetry” then “I must send you in the behalf of all poets:—that while you live in love, and never get favor for lacking skill of a sonnet; and when you die, your memory die from the earth for want of an epitaph.”
meme
1976, introduced by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene" (1976), coined by him from Gk. sources, e.g. mimeisthai "to imitate," and intended to echo gene.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Internet Meme: A cultural concept spread via the Internet in a repetitious manner similar to the replication fo genes
Sir Philip Sidney not approving of . . .you name it.
You can download the image and text to past next to images you believe Sidney would not approve of. ..
Tagged: Sir Philip Sidney is not amused, This is a bad sign, bad spelling, bad grammar,
You can blog about Sidney via Tumblr

33. Works Consulted
Boucquey, Thierry, gen. ed. "Sidney, Sir Philip." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 14th through 18th Centuries. New York: Facts On File, Inc., Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 27 May 2012
Cook, James Wyatt. "Sidney, Sir Philip." Encyclopedia of Renaissance Literature. New York: Facts On File, Inc., Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 27 May 2012.
Gilmore, Christine. "'Thou Blind Man's Mark'." In Sauer, Michelle M. The Facts On File Companion to British Poetry before New York: Facts On File, Inc., Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 13 May 2012.
Hager, Alan, ed. "Sidney's Circle." Encyclopedia of British Writers, 16th and 17th Centuries. New York: Facts On File, Inc., Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 13 May
Hager, Alan, ed. "Sidney, Sir Philip." Encyclopedia of British Writers, 16th and 17th Centuries. New York: Facts On File, Inc., Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Waller, Gary F. "Sir Philip Sidney." Critical Survey of Poetry: British, Irish, & Commonwealth Poets. Ed. Rosemary M. Canfield Reisman, 4th ed. Salem Press, Salem Literature Web. 14 May
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume B: The Sixteenth Century/The Early Seventeenth Century. New York: WW Norton, 2008.