Astrophil and Stella

Breaking Free of Convention: Sir Philip Sidney In his sonnet, “Astrophil and Stella”, Sir Phillip Sidney attempts to break free of the conventional displays of love while still maintaining a conventional sonnet form to represent that love does not follow any “rules”. The poem itself is a metaphor of love, infused with drama and passion that ultimately ruins the relationship. However, to stay within the confines of a sonnet from allows love, an uncontrollable force, to be controlled. Sidney wants to follow the form of a sonnet, but he makes the epic poem his own by infusing it with his own voice, and his own conventions about love. He does this to make the poem more real to readers. It is not a poem of courtly love, where marriage ensued for politics. Instead this epic poem demonstrates real love, and all the trials and tribulations that come with loving another, especially another who is involved with someone else. First, Sidney breaks free of convention with his first sonnet in the sequence.
Sidney’s way of completely disregarding the ways of displaying love accepted in his time era makes him stand out as a renaissance writer. Sir Philip Sidney’s entire first sonnet is a great example of his unconventional style. The entire sonnet is forced forward, and it seems that Astrophil does not know how to start to describe his love for Stella. He does not want to use the clichés of the time to describe his love. In the beginning of the sonnet, he is hopeful that Stella could give him her “grace” which the audience understands to be her love. However, as the sonnet continues, he gets more and more frustrated, unsure of what he should write. He looks to his muse for some help to which she replies, “Fool, look in thy heart and write”(1085). Readers see that all regular conventions of love and poetry are not in this poem. Sidney paints the picture of this epic poem being raw and real love, and not full of clichés associated with Petrarch’s poems.
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