Sidney

1. Philip Sidney lived from November 30th, 1554- October 17th, 1586. This particular work, "Astrophil and Stella" was thought to be written around 1580 in England, Europe.



2. "Astrophil and Stella" is a series of 108 sonnets written by Philip Sidney that are of lyrical form, and follow the Petrarchan style which is an octave that goes abbaabba followed by a sestet that is either cdecde or cdcdcd. Scholars that study Sidney agree that this is true Romanticism and suggest that Astrophil is supposed to represent himself and Stella is Penelope Rich who was married to another man. In these sonnets he seems to be writing about the universal themes of love and the desire to want what you can't have. Astrophil feels that Stella is too good for him and he is not worthy of her love, and loving her brings back the things he did in his past that he is not proud of. In many of Sidney's works he speaks of the power of love on an individual, and the power of love as an emotion, and this work is a very typical style of Sidney.