character of time in elizabethan sonnet sequences

The sonnet “Loving In Truth” shows his eager yearning to please his lady by writing original verse: Moreover, there is an idealistic zeal in his sonnets, that elevates and adores love as the very ideal, the only object of life. His sonnets are characterized by intense subjectivity and profound sincerity. He imagines himself to be Astrophel, pining for Stella, the love of his life. His subject matter is his personal experience of love which he felt for the daughter of Duke of Essex. Sidney, like Wyatt, is also a conventional sonneteer. Sir Philip Sidney’s sonnet sequence “Astrophel and Stella” registers a great advancement in English sonnet writing. National Portrait Gallery, London Sir Philip Sidney Sir Philip Sidney (oil on canvas, 18th century or after, based on a work of circa 1576) The use of the concluding couplet is found to be a favourite practice with several subsequent sonneteers including Shakespeare. He has deviated occasionally from the set Petrarchan pattern and has divided the sonnet into two equal parts of seven lines, with a concluding couplet. His originality is well established in the structure of his sonnets. Of course, the sonnet is a kind of personal poetry and Wyatt’s credit lies in the transformation of English poetry from medieval objectivity to subjectivity. The tone is extremely personal though the imagery is not exactly unique. The theme of this sonnet is also love, and the poet emphasizes the mood and various shades that define love. Likewise displeaseth me both life and death, I feed me in sorrow and laugh in all my pain I desire to perish, and yet I ask health. Without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain. Nor letteth me live nor die at my device, That loseth nor locketh holdeth me in prisonĪnd holdeth me not-yet can I scape no wise. I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise Īnd nought I have, and all the world I season.

Character of time in elizabethan sonnet sequences