Astrophil and Stella, Sonnet VII, by Philip Sydney:
BASIC FACTS:
Title: Sonnet VII.
Author: Sir Philip Sydney.
Date of composition: 1581.
Date of publication: 1591.
Collection: Astrophil and Stella (cycle of sonnets).
Poetic genre: Sonnet.
Metric: Poem composed according to the English or Shakespearean sonnet structure: 14 iambic pentameters divided into three quatrains and a final couplet.
Rhyme: The rhyme pattern is the following: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
Major Themes:
The major theme of this sonnet are Stella’s eyes. Sydney asks himself why are they black and provides some hypotheses. Love is naturally a theme here but it is subordinated to the main topic, the eyes of the beloved.
Symbols:
Stella’s eyes:
This symbol belongs to the Renaissance tradition; the lady’s eyes can kill the men who love her.
Color black:
The color black was commonly associated to darkness, evil and death, but here Sidney says that even if her eyes are black and she is surrounded by that colour, she shines. The black of her eyes is a symbol of respect towards all of the men she has killed with them.
Literary devices:
- Alliteration:
In colour black why wrapp’d she beams so bright? (l.2)
Would she in beamy black, like painter wise (l.3)
In object best to knit and strength our sight, (l.6)
Lest if no veil those brave gleams did disguise, (l.7)
They sun-like should more dazzle than delight? (l.8)
That whereas black seems Beauty’s contrary (l.10)
- Oxymoron:
Would she in beamy black, like painter wise, (l.3)
- Personification:
When Nature made her chief work, Stella’s eyes (l.1)
Lest if no veil those brave gleams did disguise (l.7)
- Rhetorical questions:
1- When Nature made her chief work, Stella’s eyes,
In colour black why wrapp’d she beams so bright?
2 -Would she in beamy black, like painter wise,
Frame daintiest lustre, mix’d of shades and light?
3- Or did she else that sober hue devise,
In object best to knit and strength our sight,
Lest if no veil those brave gleams did disguise,
They sun-like should more dazzle than delight?
4- Or would she her miraculous power show,
That whereas black seems Beauty’s contrary,
She even in black doth make all beauties flow?
The sonnet is virtually composed of rhetorical questions that Sidney answers in the final verses.
- Simile:
Would she in beamy black, like painter wise,
The beloved lady is like a skillful painter.
They sun-like should more dazzle than delight?
Sydney compares the eyes of the lady with the sun.
Sources:
http://www.gradesaver.com/astrophil-and-stella/study-guide/section1
