<meta>

<name>Sir Philip <index>Sidney</index></name>

</author>

<title>Astrophel and Stella III</title>

<source>Copied from <uri>http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/stella3.htm</uri>.</source>

<remark>Quite unusually, this sonnet's couplet is placed (at least judging by the rhyme scheme) at the start of the sestet, not at its conclusion. This reversal provides the turn between octave and sestet with a kind of abruptness that emphasizes its point that (notwithstanding the elaborations of the octave) this poet has no Muse but Stella herself, whose graces he can only copy.</remark>

<remark>Paradoxically, this is revealed as a sonnet about Stella only at a remove; and as a sonnet about sonnets, it disparages the form to assert that it achieves its beauty not by any of its <quote>strange similes</quote> but only in imitation of something that is not here except insofar as she is claimed as an inspiration.</remark>

</meta>

<line>Let dainty wits cry on the sisters <rhyme on="a">nine</rhyme>,</line>

<line>That, bravely masked, their fancies may be <rhyme on="b">told</rhyme>;</line>

<line>Or Pindar's apes flaunt they in phrases <rhyme on="a">fine</rhyme>,</line>

<line>Enam'ling with pied flowers their thoughts of <rhyme on="b">gold</rhyme>;</line>

</quatrain>

<line>Or else let them in statelier glory <rhyme on="a">shine</rhyme>,</line>

<line>Ennobling new-found tropes with problems <rhyme on="b">old</rhyme>;</line>

<line>Or with strange similes enrich each <rhyme on="a">line</rhyme>,</line>

<line>Of herbs or beasts with Ind or Afric <rhyme on="b">hold</rhyme>.</line>

</quatrain>

</octave>

<line>For me, in sooth, no Muse but one I <rhyme on="c">know</rhyme>;</line>

<line>Phrases and problems from my reach do <rhyme on="c">grow</rhyme>,</line>

</couplet>

<line>And strange things cost too dear for my poor <rhyme on="d">sprites</rhyme>.</line>

<line>How then? even thus,—in Stella's face I <rhyme on="e">read</rhyme></line>

<line>What love and beauty be, then all my <rhyme on="e">deed</rhyme></line>

<line>But copying is, what in her Nature <rhyme on="d">writes</rhyme>.</line>

</quatrain>

</sestet>

</sonnet>

</sonneteer>