Astrophil
and Stella – Philip Sidney
The
names Astrophil and Stella mean Star-lover and Star, suggesting the
impossibility of their union because of the distance between them
The
sixteenth century was a time of scientific, historical, archaeological,
religious and artistic exploration. More attention was being allotted to
probing into the depths of the human psyche and it was up to the artists and
poets rather than the priests and scholars to examine and mirror these internal
landscapes. The 'little world of man' [1] was reflected through various
artistic forms, one of which was the sonnet, which was conventionally used for
dedications, moral epigrams and the like. Traditionally most sonnets dealt with
the theme of romantic love and in general the sonneteer dealt with the
over-riding concern of the self and the other, the latter of which normally
referred to a mistress, friend, or a familial relation. One of the first
important artistic creations witnessed by the Elizabethans was Sidney's sonnet
sequence called Astrophil and Stella, a variation on Petrarch's Canzoniere.
Sidney who was indeed acclaimed the 'English Petrarch', nevertheless wrote with
his Elizabethan readers in mind as his characters spoke in English accents,
voiced English concerns and evoked the spirit of the time.
The
sequence, which like all Renaissance sequences is not a realistic
autobiography, is about a man, Astrophil who is attracted to and in pursuit of
a married woman, called Stella. On stealing a first kiss from Stella whilst she
is asleep the male protagonist worries about her reaction lest she should find
out, but later on chides himself for not taking advantage of the situation. He
then goes on to recount how he is filled with hopes one minute and despair the
next, whilst trying in vain to pursue her. In constantly being refused, he
feels angered and offends her but does not wait too long before trying to
seduce her yet again. After a few more refusals he is moved to desperation,
evoking his misery in the last few sonnets.
Incidentally,
although not a realistic autobiography, Stella is modelled on Penelope
Devereux, who was supposed to marry Sidney but was then forced to marry Lord
Rich, and 'phil' in 'Astrophil' is indeed an abbreviation of Sidney's first
name, 'Philip'. After finding out about Penelope's marriage, fate had it that
Sidney started to truly have feelings for her although by this time it was too
late.
Astrophil's
actions seem to be forgiven by some critics because he is after all driven by
love. In fact Sidney's depiction of the male protagonist is one which makes
some critics and readers empathize with him during his lamentations and praise
of Stella. This may be because it is thought that Sidney's aim was to show
readers how a man can let his emotions get the better of him, thereby leading
him into eventual despair. It is through Astrophil's mistakes and negative
example that Sidney is able to inculcate morality. This is also another typical
quality of sonneteers, who aim to morally instruct through their art.
Beneath
the witty surface of Astrophil's lamentations, Thomas P. Roche seems to feel
that 'Sidney is using Astrophil's journey from hope to despair as a fictional
device for the analysis of human desire in Christian terms.' [2] Consequently
Roche points out that in witnessing Astrophil's despair the readers' reaction
is supposed to make them conscious of his limitations from a Christian
perspective.
Conventional
topics such as addressing the moon, appealing to the world of sleep and dreams,
bemoaning the lady's absence, praising her unique beauty and virtue,
reprimanding her cold chastity and affirming his frustrated longings are all
infused within the sequence, but the impossibility of the hero and heroine's
relationship, coupled with Astrophil's weak and uninspiring character, are
highlighted in the complementing structural and thematic devices which Sidney
adopts.
In
the opening sonnet Sidney explains how he painfully resorted to every aid to
compose his sequence, 'oft turning others' leaves' but that his impotence grew
to a climax whereby it dawned on him to 'look in thy heart and write.' In
writing about how to compose a love sonnet he did just that and what formed
itself on the page before him was pure spontaneous feeling. However it is
apparent that the hero is a combination of both the besotted lover and the
self-critical poet. His emotional conflicts increase as he grows aware of his
sexual needs despite his knowing that he is ultimately a product of Protestant
training and needs to restrain his longings. It is a perpetual war of desire
against reason and nature against nurture. Moreover he knows that no matter how
much he craves for Stella it is a lost battle already and this is where the
endless laments emerge. This incessant interplay of opposing forces that is of
paradoxes is also considered an essential part of the sonnet structure.
The
impossibility of a successful relationship is also highlighted through the
sonnet title. Whilst normally, sonnet sequences are entitled with the lady's
name as she is typically regarded as the sole subject and object of the poetry,
this poem's title: Astrophil and Stella immediately hints at the disjunction
inherent in Sidney's subject. Other disjunctions are apparent, such as the
title holding both a Greek name (Astrophil) and a Latin one (Stella).
Furthermore the presence of the grammatical copula: 'and', immediately hints at
the two people being a couple (like Romeo and Juliet for example), whilst in
reality readers soon learn that they in fact are not. Indeed their names, which
mean Star-lover and Star, further suggest the impossibility of their union
because of the distance between them, whilst the name Stella immediately
highlights how unattainable she is and that she is after all not quite as
unique as Astrophil portrays her to be as her light is indeed shared and shown
by thousands of other Stellas.
The
impossibility of their union reflected in the title is reinforced in the
sequence. Astrophil is adept at colouring a dark and sombre picture of his love
life as, whilst his starlit stage has indeed become dark and dangerous,
Stella's eyes which he calls, 'nature's chiefest work' are also black, 'sweet
black which vailes the heav'nly eye.' The recurring metaphor of blackness is a
result of his increasing preoccupations and he broods over the fact that his
once starlit world seems none other than his own living hell. The Christian
opposition of heaven and hell is evident from the verse in sonnet 2, 'No doome
should make one's heav'n become his hell.' Whilst the word 'doome' suggests the
speaker's Christian damnation, it is nothing more than Stella's rebuttal.
Astrophil's,
bewildered feelings are made more explicit and reach a climax in Sonnet 89, the
only sonnet to employ just two rhymes, where in 'suffering the evils both of
the day and night' his infernal desperation is manifested. He confuses day and
night where both have become one to him and from this point on the rest of the
sequence is shrouded in physical and moral darkness.
Astrophil's
obsession with conquering Stella is further amplified when he invokes Morpheus,
the son of Somnus, god of sleep who appears to dreamers in human shape and who
will therefore bring Stella with him. He cannot bank on meeting Stella in the
waking world, so he succumbs to and relies on the world of sleep even though he
is well aware of its artifice.
Sidney's
sequence also reverberates with one of Homer's epics. It has been suggested
that the 108 sonnets represent the 108 suitors in Homer's Penelope, who played
a game of trying to hit a stone called the Penelope stone as a way of deciding
who would win and court her. Just as the wooers banked on their fate
pathetically and were aware of disappointment, so is Astrophil embarking on the
same painful and disappointing journey.
Roche
suggests that within the sonnet sequence there lies another Homeric metaphor.
The 119 poems are one short of the number of months Ulysses spent returning
home to Penelope and the very structure of the sequence therefore implies
Astrophil's only-too-obvious defeat. Astrophil too may be looked upon as
Ulysses' antithesis as he does not possess such qualities as strength,
endurance and fidelity. Furthermore his lack of integrity and malice may be
witnessed when he rebukes himself in Song II for not having seized the
opportunity after secretly stealing a kiss from his sleeping sweetheart. He
says;
Oh
sweet kisse, but ah she is waking. . .
Now
will I away hence flee:
Foole,
more Foole, for no more taking.
Astrophil
presents Stella as his sun, which lights his world and warms his spirits yet as
is always the case he finds a downside to this, saying that, moreover, 'it
burnes', concluding in the couplet that 'that my sunne go downe with meeker
beames to bed.' It is evident that he wants these burning beams to become
meeker, really referring to Stella's meekness or rather submission to him in
bed. The frequent use of sexual allusions are used in the sequence to portray
the problematic nature of Astrophil's paradoxical obsession as he craves for
her love but for her sex too.
Critical Summary:
In
the first sonnet of Astrophel and Stella, Astrophel begins the sonnet with why
he is writing the sonnet. He says that “fain in verse my love to show” so his
motivation for writing this sonnet is to appeal to a woman. Astrophel uses
strong diction such as “pleasure” and “pain”. Using these two strong opposing
words, it emphasizes his point that she will get pleasure if he is in pain. His
use of strong diction also demonstrates that he is emotionally appealing to the
reader or using pathos. He wants the reader to feel pity for him because his
lover will not listen to him unless he is in pain. However he hopes that his
pain will cause her to want to read the sonnet when he says “knowledge might
pity win.” There is a shift in his feelings from being frustrated and hurt to
hopeful. But then he switches back to being discouraged because he does not
know what he should write. He describes his words as “halting forth.” He does
not know how to express the pain he is in. At the end of the sonnet he says he
will write from his heart, “look in thy heart and write.” This phrase sets up
the rest of series of sonnets because it is the reason he is writing the
sonnets. He decides the only way to write the sonnet is not to worry about what
he is writing but to just write from his heart. The phrase also presents his final
decision. Throughout the sonnet, Astrophel debates whether he should just write
from his heart or to be careful about what he writes. He does not want his
writing to be criticized so he is afraid to write his true feelings.
The
author opens this first sonnet by explaining his motivation for composing the
sonnet sequence. He believes that if his love were to read the sonnets, she
would eventually return his affection. He argues that her pleasure in his pain
would cause her to read his sonnets, and her reading of the sonnets would allow
her to know the extent of his affection, which might make her pity the author's
situation-and this pity may transform into grace and love.
Summary:
The
poet also describes his difficulties in composing the sonnet sequence. He has
struggled to express the pain and misery of his emotions and has tried to look
at other poets' works in order to gain inspiration. Still, he has been
unsuccessful. Finally, the author has realized that the only way to fully
express his love for Stella in his poetry is to write from his heart.
Sidney's actions of writing about how to compose
a love sonnet allow him to do just that: compose a love sonnet. With this in
mind, he warns the reader that the emotions expressed in the entire sonnet
sequence stem directly from the heart-thus, he cannot be held rationally
responsible. The statements in this first sonnet make clear that Sidney (who
already can be identified with the author of the love sonnets) is conflicted in
his role as a zealous lover and a self-critical poet. This sonnet demonstrates
the first of many clashes between reason and passion that appear in the sonnet
sequence. He already seems to know that he will never truly win Stella, but he
cannot help but desire her. This conflict between contradicting forces is a
crucial element of the sequence.
****
One
Day I Wrote Her Name – Edmund Spenser
This
lyric poem touches on a classical theme: the relation between time and
immortality. Edmund Spenser employs figurative language to evoke not only
imagery but also an emotional response from the reader.
The
poem shows us a vivid picture: the couple is along the seaside, the man is
trying to write the lady’s name on the sand, but waves come and wash it away.
Then he writes again, but all in vain. The lady persuades him to give up and
says that as time passes, she will also die just as the name wiped out by tide.
But the man holds a different point of view: He believes his verses will make
her immortal.
Spenser
metaphorically compares tide rising and falling to the process of life. Also,
in the sentence “But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray”, the poet
personifies the seawater to a beast and compares the “name” to “his pray”,
which implies that time and tide wait for no man, and that everyone is doomed
to die. The lady in this poem feels insecure about time fleeting, while the man
insists on “our love shall live, and later life renew”.
Does
anything in the world last? After I read the poem, I ask myself this question
spontaneously. Almost everything has been changing, for instance, personality、thought、emotion、values，and so
on and so forth. So sometimes I even feel that making a promise just like
joking, because no one can be certain of never changing.
However,
writing is different. Many people get used to keeping a dairy, because no
matter how many years have passed, the feelings reflecting at the moment
recorded on the notebook will never fade away. Just as the poet who not merely
writes his lovers name on the sand but also in his poem. Even though the name
on the sand is wiped away by the tide, the name in the poem is still there,
which become an eternity.
Analysis
In
this poem Edmund Spenser uses the poetic elements of quatrains, couplets, and a
sestet at the end. In the poem the quatrains transition into couplets. The
first stanza is a quatrain. The rhyme scheme is ABAB. The speaker uses imagery
to convey his feelings for his wife. The speaker is on a beach writing the name
of his lover on the sand. It was washed away by the tide. Then he attempted to
write it again, but the tide washed it away. He feels that the ocean is
taunting him and making him suffer. The water is personified as someone who
inflicts pain on the speaker. His wife steps in to tell the speaker that he
needs to stop what he is doing and is vain for his efforts. The second stanza
is a quatrain with the rhyme scheme of ABAB. His wife says that it is that of
mortals to attempt to immortalize that which isn’t in existence any longer. His
wife compares herself to the vain attempt of immortality and says that she will
“wash away” just like her name was washed away by the tide. The last stanza is
a sestet. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC. The speaker doesn’t believe that to be
true. He feels that others things should die but she should be able to live
forever. Even if death occurs and she does die, she will live forever in
infamy. The fame will live on forever in place of her demise. He thinks that
what he feels about her and that her values shall live for eternity. Even if
his wife dies he feels that she is up in heaven where she belongs. Everyone in the
world will eventually have to die. The love between the speaker and his lover
shall flourish and begin anew when he comes and meets her in heaven. In this poem it exemplifies the hero journey
stage of “The Return.” In the poem the main character has to return to a place
where he feels closest to his wife. The beach is a symbol of where the speaker
feels most comfortable and at peace. The speaker can let his feelings out and
truly express himself.
Shall
I Compare Thee – William Shakespeare
The
speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I
compare thee to a summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted to such a
comparison. In line 2, the speaker stipulates what mainly differentiates the
young man from the summer’s day: he is “more lovely and more temperate.”
Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by “rough winds”; in them,
the sun (“the eye of heaven”) often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is
fleeting: its date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as
“every fair from fair sometime declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet
tells how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will
last forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never die. In the
couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty will accomplish this
feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last
forever; it will live “as long as men can breathe or eyes can see.”
This
sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets;
it may be the most famous lyric poem in English. Among Shakespeare’s works,
only lines such as “To be or not to be” and “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou
Romeo?” are better-known. This is not to say that it is at all the best or most
interesting or most beautiful of the sonnets; but the simplicity and loveliness
of its praise of the beloved has guaranteed its place.
On
the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the
beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the
beloved is always mild and temperate. Summer is incidentally personified as the
“eye of heaven” with its “gold complexion”; the imagery throughout is simple and
unaffected, with the “darling buds of May” giving way to the “eternal summer”,
which the speaker promises the beloved. The language, too, is comparatively
unadorned for the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and
nearly every line is its own self-contained clause—almost every line ends with
some punctuation, which effects a pause.
This
sonnet is the first poem in the sonnets not to explicitly encourage the young
man to have children. The “procreation” sequence of the first 17 sonnets ended
with the speaker’s realization that the young man might not need children to
preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker writes at the end of
Sonnet 17, “in my rhyme.” Sonnet 18, then, is the first “rhyme”—the speaker’s
first attempt to preserve the young man’s beauty for all time. An important
theme of the sonnet (as it is an important theme throughout much of the
sequence) is the power of the speaker’s poem to defy time and last forever,
carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The beloved’s
“eternal summer” shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet:
“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,” the speaker writes in the
couplet, “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
When in Disgrace in Men’s Eyes –
William Shakespeare
Sonnet
29 shows the poet at his most insecure and troubled. He feels unlucky, shamed,
and fiercely jealous of those around him. What causes the poet's anguish will
remain a mystery; as will the answer to whether the sonnets are
autobiographical.
However,
an examination of Shakespeare’s life around the time he wrote Sonnet 29 reveals
two traumatic events that may have shaped the theme of the sonnet. In 1592 the
London theatres closed due to a severe outbreak of plague. Although it is
possible that Shakespeare toured the outlying areas of London, it is almost
certain that he left the theatre entirely during this time to work on his
sonnets and narrative poems. The closing of the playhouses made it hard for
Shakespeare and other actors of the day to earn a living. With plague and
poverty looming it is expected that he would feel "in disgrace with
fortune" (1).
Moreover,
in 1592 there came a scathing attack on Shakespeare by dramatist Robert Greene,
who, in a deathbed diary (A Groats-worth of Wit), warned three of his fellow
university-educated playwrights: "There is an upstart Crow, beautified
with our feathers, that with his Tygers heart wrapt in a Players hide, supposes
he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you; and,
beeing an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his owne conceit the only
Shakescene in a countrey."
One
can only imagine what grief this assault – this deathbed assault – must have
caused Shakespeare. Greene was nothing if not thorough: first, using a line
from Shakespeare’s own 3 Henry VI (1.4.138), he describes Shakespeare as a
pompous, scheming, vicious ingrate, riding the coattails of better writers (no
doubt Shakespeare performed in a play Greene had himself written; then he adds
that Shakespeare was a conceited ("only Shakescene") and
insignificant jack of all trades (a "Johannes factotum").
Greene
lets even more insults fly as he continues: "O that I might intreat your
rare wits to be imploied in more profitable courses: & let those Apes
imitate your past excellence, and never more acquaint them with your admired
inventions, for it is pity men of such rare wits should be subject to the
pleasures of such rude groomes." 1
It
seems very possible such events are connected to the poet’s distressed
declaration in line 8: "With what I most enjoy contented least."
All
is not lost, however, for the sonnet ends with a positive affirmation that the
poet can combat his anguish with the "sweet love" (13) of his dear
friend.
Summary:
The
emotional state of the speaker in Sonnet 29 is one of depression: in the first
line, he assumes himself to be "in disgrace with fortune," meaning he
has been having bad luck. He also feels in disgrace with "men's eyes,"
implying that the general public looks on him unfavorably. This could be real
or imagined, but it is enforced in line 2, when he bemoans his "outcast
state." Here, "state" refers to a state of being, and in this
case, he is cast out from society.
Lines
3-4 make allusion to Job of the Old Testament in the Bible, who was cast out
onto a dung heap and called to a God who didn't listen. The poet finds himself
in the same situation: Heaven personified is God, and in this case he is
"deaf," making the poet's cries "bootless," or useless. The
idea of cursing one's fate also hearkens to Job, who cursed himself after
falling out of God's favor.
The
speaker finds himself envying what others have, and in lines 5-9 he sees almost
everyone as having something he lacks. He wishes to be like "one more rich
in hope," perhaps meaning hopeful or literally wealthy; "featured
like him," refers to someone who is handsome, with beautiful features; and
another is "with friends possessed," or popular, unlike the poet (as
has been established in the first two lines). In line 7, he envies the artistic
talent of one man, and the opportunities afforded someone else.
The
simile of a lark is developed in lines 10-12, when the speaker describes the
effect that a thought of his love has on his "state," or emotional
well-being. The fact that the lark rises from the "sullen earth" at
"break of day" implies that the day is much happier than the night;
day break is compared to the dawning of a thought of the beloved. As the lark
"sings hymns at heaven's gate," so the poet's soul is invigorated
with the thought of the fair lord, and seems to sing to the sky with
rejuvenated hope.
The
final couplet of Sonnet 29 declares that this joyfulness brought about by a
thought of the fair lord is enough to convince the speaker that he is better
off than royalty. Here, "state" is a pun: it carries the meaning of
emotional well-being, as it did earlier in the poem, and suggests that the love
of the fair lord makes the speaker so happy that all the wealth of a king would
not be better. But it also refers to a nation, or a kingdom.
To Celia – Ben Jonson
Analises of the poem
Lines
1-2
Drink
to me only with thine eyes
And
I will pledge with mine;
The
poem opens with the speaker addressing a woman (presumably). Because of the
title, we're guessing she's named Celia.
He
tells her to "drink" to him "only" with her
"eyes." In other words, he's telling her that she doesn't have to
hold up a beer and say cheers, but only has to use her eyes. It's kind of like
when you say, "I'll drink to the Bears winning the Super Bowl."
The
speaker says that he, too, will "pledge" – i.e., "drink" or
say "cheers" or something to that effect – with his eyes.
Lines
3-4
Or
leave a kiss but in the cup,
And
I'll not look for wine;
If
she doesn't want to "drink," the speaker says she can just leave a
kiss "but in the cup," and he won't care if there's no wine in it
("I'll not look for wine").
"But"
in line 3 means something like "just" or "only," and it
sounds funny because it's out of place. The line really means "just leave
a kiss in the cup, baby" or "only leave a kiss in the cup."
Lines
5-6
The
thirst that from the soul doth rise,
Doth
ask a drink divine:
The
speaker explains his desire for a drink that is not a drink. You know, he's
asking for a cup with a kiss in it instead of wine.
He
says that his thirst isn't a bodily thirst (in other words, he's not dehydrated
in the desert and craving water), but rather a more spiritual one (it is a
thirst "from the soul").
Because
his "thirst" is from the "soul," it requires something more
"divine" than, say, "wine" to satisfy it.
Notice
that line 6 is a shorter line than the previous five; they all contained eight
syllables, while line 6 only contains, fittingly, six syllables.
Lines
7-8
But
might I of Jove's nectar sup,
I
would not change for thine.
The
speaker next delivers a couplet (a pair of lines) that is meant to express how
he feels about the refreshing spiritual beverage Celia can offer him.
He
says that even if he could drink nectar from Jove's cup ("might I of
Jove's nectar sup") he wouldn't; he would rather have Celia's cup
("thine").
While
this is the gist of these lines, the word choices are a bit awkward. The speaker
seems to be saying "if I were allowed to drink Jove's nectar, I wouldn't
'change' the way things are, 'for' I prefer your beverage, my lady."
It
is also possible that the speaker means he wouldn't exchange Jove's nectar for
Celia's "nectar" of love, an interpretation that contradicts a lot of
what the speaker has been saying.
Hold
up! Who the heck is Jove? Good question. Jove is another name for the Greek god
Zeus (or Jupiter to the Romans), the king of gods who live on Mount Olympus.
The gods on Olympus are big fans of drinking "nectar."
Lines
9-12
I
sent thee, late, a rosy wreath,
Not
so much honoring thee,
As
giving it a hope that there
It
could not withered be.
The
speaker stops talking about thirst and drinking. Now he moves on to tell a
little story about his relationship with the girl.
He
says he sent her a "rosy wreath." Why? "Not so much"
because he wanted to show her how much he likes her. Instead he wanted to give
"it" (the wreath) the hope of everlasting life ("it could not
withered be").
In
other words, the speaker views Celia as some sort of divine or enchanted figure
that can keep things alive that will normally wither and die (like a wreath of
flowers).
Lines
13-14
But
thou thereon did'st only breathe,
And
sent'st it back to me;
Hmm.
Seems like the speaker's experiment didn't quite turn out as planned. That
"but" at the beginning of line 13 tells us as much. The speaker
basically says, "rather than keep the wreath to see if it wouldn't die,
she sent it back to me."
Apparently,
the woman breathed on the wreath before she sent it back.
Lines
15-16
Since
when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not
of itself, but thee.
The
speaker knows that the woman must have breathed on the wreath "since"
when it grows it smells, not like a wreath of flowers, but like Celia.
The
phrase "I swear" is a bit odd. It sounds like the speaker is saying,
"I swear it smells of thee," but that is awkward because then we are
left with an incomplete clause. For it to make sense, the speaker would have
had to say, "since when it grows, [it] smells, I swear, not of itself, but
[of] thee." Of course, it is possible that the speaker is engaging in the
age-old poetic practice of leaving things out.
Alternatively,
the speaker could just be saying, "I swear," like when we say
"it's true, I swear." Either way, it's pretty clear what the lines
mean.
It's
also important to note that the wreath still "grows." But wait. Don't
you have to cut the flowers or plants to make a wreath? So how could it still
be growing? Well, it seems like the speaker's wish from line 12 has come true
(the wreath hasn't "withered"). Still, we bet he wasn't hoping to get
the wreath back.
Summary:
To
Celia is a love poem with a simple four line rhyme scheme (abcbabcb), written
in first person. The overall tone of the poem is dreamy, optimistic,
persistent, and gullibly innocent. The rhythm is smooth, and pensive, and seems
to fall into an iambic pentameter. The poem gives the reader an intimate sense
of this man’s love, and obsession for the woman of his desire, Celia. I
interpreted this poem as having a theme of lost love. I imagined that Celia is
his ex-lover, he still is in love with her, and wants her to come back to him.
In
the first stanza, the strong feelings he has for her are expressed
metaphorically by comparing his love to drinking wine, and Jove’s Nectar, an elixir
for immortality. He is intoxicated by her, and can’t live without her. In the
first line “Drink to me, only with thine eyes And I will pledge with mine”, he
is asking Celia to look at him with her eyes, and tell him she still loves him,
he will in turn promise himself to her. “Or leave a kiss but in the cup And
I\'ll not look for wine” meaning If that is too much to ask, at least show him
in some way that she still cares for him, and that will as least satisfy him.
“The thirst that from the soul doth rise Doth ask a drink divine”, the desire
and love he has for her is burning deep inside of him, and he needs her. “But
might I of Jove\'s nectar sup I would not change for thine”, meaning he cannot
live without her. If he were given the gift of immortality, he would not take
it just to be with her.
A
wreath is a symbol of eternity, in the second stanza, he expresses eternal love
for her by metaphorically comparing it to the rosy wreath. I believe the wreath
also may represent an apology. In the first line of the second stanza, “I sent
thee late a rosy wreath Not so much honoring thee”, I believe he is talking
about the mistakes he made. He used the word late, implying that he was too
late showing her his eternal love for her, and is now not able to have her,
honoring being another word for having. “As giving it a hope that there It
could not withered be”, he is telling her he loves her hoping their love is not
lost. “But thou thereon didst only breath And sent\'st it back to me”, she
doesn’t want to listen to him anymore, takes a deep breath or sigh, and does
not accept his apology. “Since, when it grows and smells, I swear, Not of
itself but thee”, No matter what happens, I will always love you, and a piece
of you will always be with me.
Some
techniques used in this poem are Alliteration, the use of metaphors,
personification, irony, hyperbole, and possibly allegory. Alliteration can be
identified in this poem by the words that are stressed such as (highlighted in
green above) in the first stanza, stresses are placed on Drink, cup, kiss, and
divine. Metaphors were used to describe his love for Celia, such as drinking
the wine, the elixir of eternal life, and the rosy wreath. Personification is
used in personifying Celia’s eyes, as if they could speak, and the thirst takes
on a human quality of rising, and asking for a drink. I thought irony was
present when Celia sent the wreath back, or denied his apology. The man
disregarded this action, and continued with his protest of love for her. I
think hyperbole was used a lot in this poem. For example the entire poem seems
to be a hyperbole. It is extremely exaggerated, and in particular, the lines
“But might I of Jove\'s nectar sup I would not change for thine”, and “Since,
when it grows and smells, I swear, Not of itself but thee.” The images are
unrealistic, and cannot be taken literally. I thought allegory can be
identified in this poem, because if you read through the poem once, you may
just interpret a man courting a woman, and the woman literally returning his gift
to him, not acknowledging him. However I felt that these two people were at
once very close. They loved each other, and the man did something that caused
them to break up. He still is madly in love with her, and would do anything to
get her back. He apologizes to her, but it is not enough. The literal meaning
is obvious, but the symbolic meaning of the poets word choices lead to my
interpretation. I believe three main important concepts that influence the
entire poems message would be word choice, tone, and symbols.
Word
choice is important in this poem, because the words used give the reader a
detailed understanding of what the poet is trying to say. The words also create
the imagery of the poem, and set up the meaning of the symbols used throughout.
For example the whole first stanza is surrounded by words that are related to
drinking wine, such as drink, cup, wine, thirst, and nectar. The words make it
easy for the reader to determine that he is comparing the love he has for Celia
to drinking wine, and the nectar of Jove’s. Her love is intoxicating, and worth
more than anything to him. In the second stanza, the word choice I noticed was
more important. The words late, rosy wreath, honouring, withered, breath,
grows, smell, and swear, to me all had in depth meaning. For example late lead
me to believe he had made a mistake. Rosy wreath suggested eternal love, and an
apology. Honouring took on the meaning of having. Withered reminded me of
dyeing, and lost love. Breath implied her presence, and disapproval. Grows,
tells the reader that his love for her has only gotten stronger. Smell implies
a sense of lingering, as if her essence is still all around him. Swear implies
a promise to oneself, and he promises to always love her.
The
tone of the poem I described as dreamy, optimistic, persistent, and gullibly
innocent. I think this tone is important in getting the poets mood across to
the reader. The rhythm of the poem contributes to the tone because it is smooth
and pensive. The poem is read in a smooth whimsical way, and slightly
imploring. I thought it was dreamy because of the flowery language used, and
the whimsical way it read through. Optimistic because he is hopeful that Celia
still loves him, persistent, because he goes into length describing his love,
and gullibly innocent, because even though it is clear Celia wants nothing to
do with him anymore, he still holds onto the love he has for her.
The
symbols I thought were interesting, and really led me to discovering an
underlying meaning to this poem. Examples of the symbol used in this poem are
the eyes, Jove’s Nectar, the rosy wreath, and Celia’s breath. When the poet
opens with mentioning thine eyes, it symbolizes that they are close, and he
knows what she is feeling without her speaking. The eyes create intimacy in the
poem. Jove’s Nectar symbolizes immortality, and his love. His love will never
die for her. The rosy wreath symbolizes eternity, on how he will love her
forever, and also I believe the wreath serves as a symbol for the apology he is
giving her. Celia’s breath symbolizes her release from him. She does not take
him in, but exhales. This symbolizes her rejecting him. I think these symbols
were very influential in the way I interpreted this poem.
In
conclusion, I really enjoyed this poem, and digging into its underlying
meaning. At first I found the language very hard to follow, and read it so many
times I now have it memorized. I researched other people’s thoughts online, and
realized that I had taken a different perspective on the poem compared to other
reviews. I always find it interesting to see how differently people think, and
how the meanings of these poems take life in the individual depending on their
own experiences.
My Sweetest Lesbia – Thomas Campion
Thomas
Campion belongs to that fascinating tradition of medically-trained poets, the
analysis of which deserves a book rather than a blog. He was born in London in
1567, left Cambridge without a degree, briefly studied law, but ultimately
graduated from the University of Caen with an MD. After practising medicine in
London he later returned to the continent as a gentleman-soldier. He is
believed to have died of the plague in London in 1620.
The
Romance languages he heard and read must surely have contributed to the
training of his poetic "ear". He was not simply a melodist but an
experimenter; part of the poetic movement which was then seeking to adapt
quantitative measure to the English line. All the same, he is rightly
considered to be the most flawless lyricist of the Elizabethan poets. No
lutenist or madrigal choir is needed: his "airs" sing from the page.
He was himself a composer and he collaborated with other composers. In his
Preface to the Reader from P Rossiter's 1601 Book of Ayres, he declared
"What epigrams are in poetry, the same are airs in music, then in their
chief perfection when they were short." Within the relative brevity, and
alongside the mellifluous cadence, Campion does more than make music: he shows
us nuanced, often painful, always convincing human emotions. His poetry is the
lute on which "passion" plays. As he says in "Corinna",
"For when of pleasure she does sing, / My thoughts enjoy a sudden spring;
/ But if she doth of sorrow speak, / Even from my heart the strings do break."
This
week's poem, "My Sweetest Lesbia", is sometimes described as a
translation. Its inspiration is the Latin poet Catullus's poem, Carmen V, which
begins "Vivamus mea Lesbia, atque amemus". Campion opens, more or
less, with Catullus's first six lines. But his goal is to turn the poem into a
song – a strophic song with a refrain. He soon departs from the Latin.
Catullus's erotic crescendo ("Give me a thousand kisses, then another
hundred / then another thousand, then a second hundred … ") completely
disappears. Instead, Campion takes from the Latin poem the antithetical ideas
of brief light and never-ending night, and weaves them into a refrain,
delicately varied at each appearance.
Delicacy
is the key to this poem. Campion's lines are not typically uniform, and the
beauty of his rhythm often lies in the variation of line-length. However,
within this poem's uniform lines, his syntax creates similarly graceful, if
lighter, pauses. The iambic pentameter treads on tiptoe. Delicacy for Campion
is not wafty poetic fragility, but a habit of mind – shown in the wit and tact
which move him delightfully to turn Catullus's "senum" ("old
men") into "the sager sort". But admittedly the poem's tone is
on the sombre side: if Carmen V was a Song of Innocence, this is a Song of
Experience.
I
don't suppose "My Sweetest Lesbia" has even been included in an
anti-war anthology, but it embodies a pacifist statement: it pits the
hedonist's sensible and simple argument against "fools" who
"waste their little light / And seek with pain the ever-during night".
Campion, we remember, knew battlefields first-hand, and, as a doctor, he may
well have closed the eyes of the dead.
The
conclusion is hardly straightforward. Is the speaker asking Lesbia to close his
eyes and then kiss him? Is it her memory of him that will "crown" his
love? The "little light" seems full of possible metaphor, too. That
Arcadian image of the celebrating lovers and their "sweet pastimes"
at the tomb-side seems to take a graceful turn from artifice into generous
humanity. The speaker is giving life and love permission to continue without
him – and possibly to continue for Lesbia.
It
is Campion's wonderful art to be seriously playful. Catullus is playful, too,
but more intense; the Elizabethan keeps lusty defiance in check. "My
Sweetest Lesbia" is only partly a carpe diem poem. It moves us because it
celebrates love without begging or bragging, and because of the pathos of its
minor key; its unconsoled, recurring awareness of that "ever-during
night".
D. B. Gavani
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