Sir Philip Sidney’s From Astrophil and Stella is filled with misery, confusion, passion and suffering. Astrophil, the narrator in these sonnets, falls madly in love with Stella, a charming, beautiful woman. By reading the sonnets the reader can pick up on Astrophil’s extreme obsession with Stella. Emotions overflow each sonnet, some with more of an uplifting mood than others. For example, in Sonnet 2, the reader immediately can feel the strong emotions that overcome Astrophil. It makes the reader question, what is it about her that he is so infatuated with? Why can’t she love him back? Why doesn’t she love him back? When first reading this sonnet the feelings he was expressing were somewhat overwhelming. Being that this is only the second sonnet, the reader can feel somewhat sorrowful for Astrophil, especially when he ends the sonnet with, “To make myself believe that all is well, while with a feeling skill I paint my hell (lines 13-14).” It is the idea of being happy on the outside but distraught on the inside.
I think it would be insightful if there were a sonnet sequence with Stella’s internal feelings and emotions because throughout From Astrophil and Stella the reader is mainly focused and informed on Astrophil’s desires and longings. It would give a new perspective on the plot that Sidney is portraying. Learning about Stella’s inner thoughts could answer many questions that the reader was having and open up new ones. Just as the book Grendel opened up new point of views, I feel like a sonnet sequence by the character of Stella would do the same.
It is clear that Edmund Spenser’s From Amoretti sonnet sequence is filled with love and passion due to Spenser’s recent courtship and marriage with Elizabeth Boyle. These sonnets distinctly stood out to me because of how the narrator did not have an overwhelming amount of distress or despair due to a woman in which he is in love with, is not loving him back. Although, there are some points throughout the sonnets where he seems discouraged, he has a way to change that emotion and induce romance into situations. For example, in Sonnet 65 Elizabeth obtains doubt, as she does not want her freedom taken away once they are united. Amoretti immediately seems to reverse these negative thoughts with saying, “That fondly feare to loose you liberty, when loosing one, two liberties ye gayne…” (lines 2-4). He moves on to relate her feeling of captivity to a “gentle birde” entrapped in a cage. A bird itself does not feel like a prisoner as she can sing and is taken care of which overall leads to satisfaction- “feeds her fill.” Together they can heal each other’s wounds and therefore when they are indeed married she will not have to fear.
The reason I chose these two authors was because of how Spenser’s From Amoretti’s sonnet sequence seemed to defy the typical sonnet sequence. I used Sir Philip Sidney’s From Astrophil and Stella to show how the sonnets that I have had to read are typically filled with longings for lust, and the idea of wanting something that you cannot have. Spenser’s sonnets were filled with romance, love and the desire to be in lust even after death, which he demonstrated through compliments and descriptive characterization with his word choice. I found it intriguing to read a sonnet sequence in which sadness or discouragement did not take over each sonnet.
I agree with you that a lyrical sequence done from Stella's perspective in response to Sideny's work would be incredibly interesting. I read Mary Wroth's sequence as something of just that type of response, and the woman narrator seems to come off much stronger than many of the male narrators in similar works.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would like even more though is a non-fiction account of a woman's response to a Sidney-esque sequence. Most of the girls I know today would be more than a little weirded out if I slipped something like this under their door. I guess women of the time really did respond to that kind of poetry and those decadent examinations of internal turmoil and emotion. I just think it would be fascinating to see how the real life subjects of these poems felt about the poets and their gestures.
As you and Steve said, a response would be interesting indeed to read; it gave me the idea to suggest the idea of writing a response sonnet of either Petrarchan or Shakespearean to one of the sonnets within our reading for a future wild card or an extra credit assignment but of course I would credit you for the inspiration ^_^ I would like to see how people would respond and how they think the beloved would respond to the sonnets/poets. Good idea :D
ReplyDeleteAlso, to respond to your other bit, I think that it's nice as well that some of these sonnets aren't completely filled with turmoil.
I'd love to read your response sonnet, Rebecca. By all means, do it. Great idea! I love writing sonnets so, if you don't mind, I might borrow your idea (slightly modified) for another assigment later on.
ReplyDeleteI too was refreshed to read Sydny's sonnets because of their more positive tone. The "courtly love" idea back then kind of weirds me out.
Steve, you are absolutely correct about a modern woman's response to something like that. I don't know many women who wouldn't go to the police to report a potential suicide case if a poem like one of these guilt ridden, angst filled sonnets showed up in their mailbox. Or at least never they'd speak to the guy again. But ideas about love were a LOT diffent back in the 15 and 1600s. Women were seen more as objects to be admired than complex human beings to be interacted with. Thus, the typical lyric poetry sequence came about. This may sound cynical, but before widespread feminism took hold of the western world, I suppose a lot of women were just happy with whatever attention they could get. Who'd regect a sappy, hyperbolic love sonnet if that's all that was expected according to the current social standards?
I agree with Steve on both counts. Any girl today would be find something like that disturbing and probably worry about the metal stability of the writer. I too would love to see the reactions of the people poems like this one were written to. Even more so I want to read Rebecca's purposed sonnet. The idea of getting into the head of the other character would answer many lingering questions from the poem.
ReplyDeleteI also think it is interesting to wonder at what has replaced this sort of thing today? The easy, and mostly true, answer is song. But do the songs we hear today really capture the same emotions and beauty as this poem?