express and ease emotion. Sonnet 34 marks a change
in tactic for the long-suffering Astrophil, since he has
now realized that Stella is married to another and
chooses to remain chaste. Thus, the opening lines por-
tray writing poetry as supreme self-indulgence: “ ‘And
to what end?’ To ease / A burthened hart” (ll. 1–2),
especially when the possibility of wooing the object of
desire is now gone forever, recalling the Petrarchan
theme of the ability of words to soothe.
At the beginning of the second quatrain, SIR PHILIP
SIDNEY alludes to Aristotle, an author he was later to
write about in his DEFENSE OF POESY, going on to ques-
tion the place of fame in poetry and what “wise men”
(l. 7) will think of his poem. He discounts the censure
of others by claiming that if they think his words “fond
ware” (l. 7) or foolish trifl es, then they are “close” (l. 8),
or emotionally incapable of understanding his verse.
He acknowledges the diffi culty of feeling emotional
pain yet not being able to express it: “What harder
thing then smart, and not to speake?” (l. 10), alluding
to the confessional aspect of poetry, especially love
poetry. The VOLTA in next line then privileges the con-
fessional over poetic conventions—“With wit my wit is
mard” (l. 12)—and returns the poem to a single voice.
The fi nal lines argue that the real reason for the
poem and any publication of the poem is not to achieve
fame; rather, it is so that “perhaps some fi nd / Stella’s
great powrs” (ll. 13–14). Seemingly generous, this sen-
timent is actually quite selfi sh, as Astrophil desires to
showcase Stella and his talents, thus confi rming the
indulgent aspect of sonnet writing.
See also ASTROPHIL AND STELLA (OVERVIEW).
Andrew Bretz
Astrophil and Stella: Sonnet 37 (“My mouth
doth water, and my breast doth swell”) SIR
PHILIP SIDNEY (ca. 1582) A variation of the ITALIAN
(PETRARCHAN) SONNET, the rhyme scheme in Sonnet 37
follows an OCTAVE and SESTET rhyme pattern of
abbaabba, cdcdee. The poem itself, however, exhibits an
additional variation—a syntactical and semantic one
that is an aberration within the SONNET tradition. This
poem is unique in that it uses the fi rst quatrain to
announce a riddle, which then evolves over the next
10 lines.
Sonnet 37 is also signifi cant because it is the fi rst
poem in Astrophil and Stella that actually refers to
Penelope Devereux Rich, the model for Stella. SIR
PHILIP SIDNEY here demonstrates that the abject lover is
not as powerless as he might appear; indeed, he has
power over the beloved because he writes (names) her.
Sometimes the naming is not very fl attering. For exam-
ple, as he describes his tongue’s role in the creative
process, “Rich” rhymes with “itch” (l. 2). Puns on the
name Rich appear throughout the sonnet, reducing the
beloved to material goods (commodifi cation). She is
the property of another man, and the lover is an upstart
for pursuing her through his poems.
Sonnet 37 also uses images associated with preg-
nancy (for example, swollen breasts) to talk humor-
ously about giving birth to his poetry. In this case, he
gives birth to a poem in the form of a riddle for the
court, the intended audience of the work, making this
one of the few poems in the sequence whose intended
audience is not the beloved. Though pregnancy is a
female attribute, Sidney successfully appropriates the
image for his own masculine purpose, and then proves
to be more fertile than biological women, as he pro-
duces numerous poems.
See also ASTROPHIL AND STELLA (OVERVIEW).
FURTHER READING
Fienberg, Nona. “The Emergence of Stella in Astrophil and
Stella.” SEL 25, no. 1 (1985): 5–19.
Peggy J. HueyAstrophil and Stella: Sonnet 39 (“Come sleep!
O sleep the certain knot of peace”) SIR PHILIP
SIDNEY (ca. 1582) Sonnet 39 deals with a typical
Petrarchan subject: the lover’s sleeplessness due to his
pining for the beloved. Opening with a PAEAN to per-
sonifi ed sleep—“Come sleep! O sleep the certain knot
of peace” (l. 1)—the speaker then details the advan-
tages of sleeping; it is the state that brings peace, pro-
vides a resting place for wit, eases pain, and provides
wealth to a poor man and release to a prisoner. Another
request, “with shield of proof shield me from out the
prease [group]” (l. 5), relies on wordplay. Using shield
fi rst as a noun and then as a verb, the speaker asks to
be protected from the throng of darts thrown byASTROPHIL AND STELLA: SONNET 39 49