had tentative plans to marry in 1576, but she married
Lord Rich instead. This sonnet marks the beginning of
the possible biographical parallels between Sir Philip
Sidney and Astrophil and Penelope Devereux and
Stella, a line of inquiry still debated by scholars.
See also ASTROPHIL AND STELLA (OVERVIEW).
Margaret M. Simon
Astrophil and Stella: Sonnet 3 (“Let dainty wits
crie on the Sisters nine”) SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (ca.
1582) This SONNET opens with the narrator stating
that “dainty wits” (l. 1) must call on the muses (“the
sisters nine,” l. 1) for help when writing, but Astrophil
needs no such aid because the only inspiration he
looks to is that which he receives from Stella (l. 9). The
narrator says that those who look to the muses and
who do not have moving inspiration as he himself does
may fall victim to several circumstances: perhaps these
poets who rely on the muses will make themselves into
“Pindar’s apes” (l. 3), a reference to those who
attempted to imitate the great Greek poet Pindar,
though the narrator suggests that these “apes” will then
have “thoughts of gold” (l. 4). This is the fi rst instance
in which Stella is referred to as a “book of nature,” so
in this phrase, the word gold has a negative connota-
tion. Astrophil is not concerned with riches or material
wealth, but with what is completely natural and beau-
tiful: Stella.
The narrator goes on to suggest that the “apes” can
only “enrich” their poetry with “strange similes” (l. 7).
Here “strange” signifi es the opposite of natural (Stella).
The next line, “Of herbs or beasts which Ind or Afric
hold” (l. 8), reinforces the notion of the unusual and
the uncommon, as well as English imperial expansion,
which set English culture in confl ict with “strange”
native “herbs and beasts.”
The focus of the third QUATRAIN turns inward. The
narrator moves from commenting on the practices of
other poets and now focuses solely on himself, empha-
sizing the personal connection he feels for his subject/
muse. Again, the narrator refers to “strange things” and
explicitly states that they “cost too dear for [his] poor
sprites” (l. 10); this means that writing about the
unnatural and alien is too taxing, but that writing about
what he knows, what is natural to him, takes little
effort at all. The narrator makes it clear that his task of
writing—which is really no task at all but rather a
joy—is incredibly simple. All he must do is look into
Stella’s face, the pinnacle of what is natural and good,
and copy what he sees (l. 13).
Astrophil pays Stella one of the greatest compli-
ments of all in this sonnet by stating that “Nature
writes” (l. 14) in her directly. If only all poets could be
so lucky as to have Stella as a muse, there would be no
literary “apes” plaguing poetry.
See also ASTROPHIL AND STELLA (OVERVIEW); SIDNEY, SIR
PHILIP.
FURTHER READING
Devereux, E. J. A. “Pindare’s Apes’ in Sonnet 3 of Astrophil
and Stella.” N&Q 24 (1977): 521.
Karley K. AdneyAstrophil and Stella: Sonnet 5 (“It is most true
that eyes are formed to serve”) SIR PHILIP SID-
NEY (ca. 1582) Sonnet 5 of Astrophil and Stella struc-
turally resembles an ENGLISH SONNET because it has
three QUATRAINs and a COUPLET. Thematically, the son-
net is typically Petrarchan, demonstrating the poet’s
inner confl ict with love and reason.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY spends the fi rst 13 of the poem’s 14
lines discussing inner beauty as virtue and physical
beauty as temporary and shallow. Sidney writes that
the “heavenly part” should rule and guide one’s actions
and feelings, and that anyone who swerves from this
rule “Rebels to Nature” (l. 4). Sidney next challenges
the typical Petrarchan image of Cupid being responsi-
ble for people falling in love. Instead, he says that
Cupid’s dart is but an image that “for ourselves we
carve” (l. 6), and that we foolishly worship this image
in our hearts until this image of love (that he terms
good god) starves the churchman and the church (the
lover and his body). This image of Cupid’s dart, or
infatuation with physical beauty, is not true love for
the speaker. He states that true beauty is virtue, and
that physical beauty is temporary because it is com-
prised of the four elements—earth, air, water, and fi re.
The VOLTA occurs in line 13, where Sidney states that
“people are pilgrims whose souls journey to Heaven.”ASTROPHIL AND STELLA: SONNET 5 39