This collection of works by Sir Philip Sidney includes Defence of Poesie, the most entertaining and penetrating critical essay of the period. Sidne...
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Jun 17, 2010
Eric
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One of the boldest flavors of Elizabethan English. There's a great point in the Defence where he declares that, poetic laurels being preeminent, Alexander the Great and Darius feuded merely to decide "who would be cock of this world's dung-hill." A poet and theorist, diplomat and courtier, who also died in battle against the Spanish. We use "Renaissance Man" to denote polymathic interests and aptitudes, but to me the phrase always conjures people like Sidney and Caravaggio an
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Mar 21, 2010
Jon
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Still trying to read the things I was supposed to read in school and didn't. Sir Philip Sidney spent most of his life being groomed to be the perfect courtier for Elizabeth I; but because she took offense at some youthful comments, and because she had many problems with his family, she spent years never preferring him. Eventually he despaired of ever being a credit to his country or his family, and he spent four years writing "trifles"--the defense of poesie, the first sonnet sequence
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Sep 21, 2011
Victoria
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This is one of the most daring and beautiful works of Elizabethan English that I have read so far.
Sidney has a way of contradicting himself in the Defence of Poesie that is refreshing, comical, and utterly realistic. Astrophil and Stella is easily my favorite sonnet cycle. The unparalleled love is real and not real all at once. It is filled with longing, tension, and perhaps even a bit of insanity.
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That the dear sh More...
Sidney has a way of contradicting himself in the Defence of Poesie that is refreshing, comical, and utterly realistic. Astrophil and Stella is easily my favorite sonnet cycle. The unparalleled love is real and not real all at once. It is filled with longing, tension, and perhaps even a bit of insanity.
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That the dear sh More...
Sep 02, 2009
Ms Cochran
rated it:
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That the dear she might take some pleasure of my pain,
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe:
Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain,
Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburned brain.
But words More...
That the dear she might take some pleasure of my pain,
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe:
Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain,
Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburned brain.
But words More...
Oct 23, 2008
Shef
rated it:
"Astrophil and Stella" is the best medieval work I have read. Unparalleled romance, tinged in turns with melancholy and hope. It has inspired me with its depth, and after reading it over a year ago, I am still writing in response to it. None of his other poetry, however, has had a similar impact on me.
Mar 26, 2009
Stephanie
rated it: 
Though the modernized spellings were somewhat annoying, and the introduction printed in the original release of AStrophil & Stella aren't included, it's still a good, solid version. And Sidney is just as good a sonnetteer as Shakespeare.
Nov 30, 2007
Nick
rated it:
Easily my favorite sonnet cycle, opening with one of my very favorite poems and probably the best hexameter sonnet in English.
Feb 12, 2012
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