International Journal of Literature and Arts

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The Delineation of Passion in Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella

Received: 28 June 2015    Accepted: 10 July 2015    Published: 17 July 2015
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Abstract

The research tries to approach Philip Sidney (1554-1586) as a model of passionate poet and lover. Through the extensive influence of Greeks’ and Petrarch's love sonnet cycles, Sidney wrote his sonnets about the abject knightly lover, to suit his prime purpose of delineating the uncontrollable passion, who is condemned by the coldness of his beloved. It also examines the delineation of passion in Sidney’s sonnets cycle, namely Astrophil and Stella, in which selected sonnets as well as songs revolve around the uncontrollable passion of a sorrowful and burning lover, who falls in love, and experiences the agony of rejections and the effects of betrayal by his beloved. It often expresses Astrophil’s pain and frustration at Stella’s diffidence. Sidney carries these passionate topics beyond their predictable limitations, using them simply to begin a discourse. For that matter, through the convention and the influence of Petrarch, Sidney portrayed passion in his sonnets and his songs, breathing into it, a lyrical melody, a meditative energy and an aesthetic interest, transforming the entire sonnet cycle into a personal direct statement.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.20150304.14
Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 3, Issue 4, July 2015)
Page(s) 54-59
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

English, Literature, Poetry, Passion, Sidney

References
[1] Kenneth Muir, “Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)” in British Writers: William Langland to the English Bible, vol. I, G. E. Ian Scott- Kilvert, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1979), pp.160-175. qtd., in ibid.
[2] William Shakespeare, Hamlet (New York: Scott, Foreman and Company, 1980), Act III, Scene 1, lines: 155-157, p. 67.
[3] Sidney Lee and D. Litt, “The Elizabethan Sonnets: Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella” in The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Vol., III, A. W. Ward and A. R. Trent, eds., (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21), p. 335.
[4] Elizabeth Porges Watson, Unbridled Passion: Chivalric Metaphor and Practice in Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 117-118.
[5] Surjit S. Mehar, Spenser and Sidney: Selected Sonnets and Poems (New Delhi: Rama Brothers India PVT. LTD., 2009), p. 13.
[6] Caitlin Vincent, “Astrophil and Stella Summary” in http://www.gradesaver.com/astrophil-and-stella/study-guide/short-summary/ (retrieved 30th January, 2014), p. 1. Ibid, p.2. Ibid.
[7] Cf. “The English Language in the Age of Shakespeare” in The New Pelican Guide to English Literature, Vol. II, ed. Boris Ford, (England: Penguin Books Ltd., 1967), p. 346.
[8] Christopher T. Mouth, Passions Triumph over Reason: A History of the Moral Imagination from Spenser to Rochester (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 15.
[9] Roger Crisp, trans., Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p.21.Mouth, ibid. Ibid.
[10] Darlene Ciraulo, Tales of Erotic Suffering: Romance In Sidney And Shakespeare, M.A., (Georgia: The University of Georgia, 1994), p.1.
[11] C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1936), p. 2.
[12] Anthony Law, The Reinvention of Love: Poetry, Politics and Culture From Sidney to Milton (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 22. Ciraulo, ibid.
[13] Robert L. Montgomery, “Reason, Passion and Introspection In “Astrophel and Stella,”” Texas Studies in English, 36 (2003), p. 128.
[14] Alexander B. Grosart, The Complete Poems of Sir Philip Sidney (1877) (Oregon, University of Oregon, 1996). Sonnet, I:6-14. Subsequent references to this edition will appear parenthetically in my text, showing the number of sonnets along with their line numbers. Mehar, pp. 15-19.
[15] Daniel Juan Gil, Before Intimacy: Asocial Sexuality in Early Modern England (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), p. 9.
[16] Daniel Philip Knauss, Love Refinement: Metaphysical Expression of Desire in Philip Sidney and John Donne, M.A., (North Carolina: North Carolina State University Press, 1998), p. 21.
[17] Thomas Roche and William A. Ringler, Jr., eds., The Poems of Sir Philip Sidney (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962), p. 205.Vincent, p.16. Roche and Ringler, pp.195-196.
[18] Donna, “Structure, theme and convention in Sir Philip Sidney's sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella” in http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/astrophil_ and_stella.html (Retrieved in 2 February, 2014), p. 2. Vincent, p. 22.
[19] Sonia Hernandez Santano, “Corrupted Platonism in Astrophil and Stella: The Expression of Desire,” Sederi 9 (1998), p.86.
[20] Jacqueline T. Miller, “The Passion Signified: Imitation and the Construction of Emotions in Sidney and Wroth” in http://gracewood0.tripod.com/sidney miller.html (Retrieved 16 November 2013), p. 1.Vincent, p.35.
Author Information
  • Department of English, Koya University, Koya, Iraq

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    Sarkawt Amir Sabir. (2015). The Delineation of Passion in Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 3(4), 54-59. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20150304.14

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    Sarkawt Amir Sabir. The Delineation of Passion in Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2015, 3(4), 54-59. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20150304.14

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    Sarkawt Amir Sabir. The Delineation of Passion in Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella. Int J Lit Arts. 2015;3(4):54-59. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20150304.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.20150304.14,
      author = {Sarkawt Amir Sabir},
      title = {The Delineation of Passion in Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella},
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {3},
      number = {4},
      pages = {54-59},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20150304.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20150304.14},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20150304.14},
      abstract = {The research tries to approach Philip Sidney (1554-1586) as a model of passionate poet and lover. Through the extensive influence of Greeks’ and Petrarch's love sonnet cycles, Sidney wrote his sonnets about the abject knightly lover, to suit his prime purpose of delineating the uncontrollable passion, who is condemned by the coldness of his beloved. It also examines the delineation of passion in Sidney’s sonnets cycle, namely Astrophil and Stella, in which selected sonnets as well as songs revolve around the uncontrollable passion of a sorrowful and burning lover, who falls in love, and experiences the agony of rejections and the effects of betrayal by his beloved. It often expresses Astrophil’s pain and frustration at Stella’s diffidence. Sidney carries these passionate topics beyond their predictable limitations, using them simply to begin a discourse. For that matter, through the convention and the influence of Petrarch, Sidney portrayed passion in his sonnets and his songs, breathing into it, a lyrical melody, a meditative energy and an aesthetic interest, transforming the entire sonnet cycle into a personal direct statement.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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    AB  - The research tries to approach Philip Sidney (1554-1586) as a model of passionate poet and lover. Through the extensive influence of Greeks’ and Petrarch's love sonnet cycles, Sidney wrote his sonnets about the abject knightly lover, to suit his prime purpose of delineating the uncontrollable passion, who is condemned by the coldness of his beloved. It also examines the delineation of passion in Sidney’s sonnets cycle, namely Astrophil and Stella, in which selected sonnets as well as songs revolve around the uncontrollable passion of a sorrowful and burning lover, who falls in love, and experiences the agony of rejections and the effects of betrayal by his beloved. It often expresses Astrophil’s pain and frustration at Stella’s diffidence. Sidney carries these passionate topics beyond their predictable limitations, using them simply to begin a discourse. For that matter, through the convention and the influence of Petrarch, Sidney portrayed passion in his sonnets and his songs, breathing into it, a lyrical melody, a meditative energy and an aesthetic interest, transforming the entire sonnet cycle into a personal direct statement.
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