English Literature

Week 9

Please read:

Edmund Spenser, p. 179-80.

• Amoretti, Sonnet 30 (p. 180).
• Amoretti, Sonnet 75 (p. 180).

Sir Philip Sidney:

• Selection from Arcadia, p. 182.
• Astrophil and Stella :
  • 1. “Loving in truth” -- I've done this myself and posted it here to give you an idea what I'm looking for.
  • 2. “Not at first sight”
  • 3. “Let dainty wits...”
  • 5. “It is most true...”
  • 7. “When Nature made her chief worke...”
  • 9. “Queen Virtues Court, which some call...”
  • 15. “You that do search for every purling spring...”
  • 17. “His Mother dear...”
  • 18. “With what sharp checks...”
  • 20. “Fly, fly...”
  • 23. “The curious wits...”
  • 27. “Because I oft in dark abstracted wise...”
  • 35. “What may words say...”
  • 41. “Having this day my horse...”
  • 47. “What, have I thus betray'd...”
  • 49. “I on my horse...”
  • 64. “No more, my dear...”
  • 68. “Stella, the only plane of my light...”
• “Thou Blind Man's Mark”, p. 183.

The ones not linked above may be gathered from the complete collection at the Luminarium site.

While reading these, be mindful of the fact that spelling in Elizabethan England was extremely flexible. The Web edition uses older spellings: “Astrophel” instead of “Astrophil”; i can be a j; u can be a v; an extra e can pop up almost anywhere.

Optional further reading:

Those who find themselves particularly taken with both Spenser and Sidney may want to investigate the curious poem called “Astrophel”, which is a long “Pastorall Elegie vpon the death of the most Noble and valorous Knight, Sir Philip Sidney”.

The excellent Luminarium site offers some biographical information on Spenser and on Sidney.

Please write and post in the forum I have set up in the Moodle a presentation on one of these sonnets.

First claim your choice of poem by posting a notice to that effect on the Moodle General Discussion forum; I don’t want any duplication, so make sure nobody’s claimed it before you. If someone else has already picked the one you want, select a different one. Then I’d like you to post a presentation in the Moodle forum for the Sidney sonnets (in or around this week in the Moodle). This is a serious assignment: give it some attention and care. Have it posted and ready to present in class by next week.