Loving in Truth by Sir Philip Sidney

Loving in Truth is the opening sonnet of Sir Philip Sidney's great sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella. The sequence is said to record Sidney's courtship with a woman named Penelope Devereux, but was no doubt influenced by the conventions of courtly love.

When reading English Renaissance poetry, it helps me to remember that poets of the period celebrated invention. Part of the joy of reading Sidney's sonnet can be found in untangling the poem's clever syntax and extended metaphors.



Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That the dear she might take some pleasure of my pain,
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe:
Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain,
Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburned brain.
But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay;
Invention, Nature's child, fled stepdame Study's blows;
And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way.
Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:
"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write."


Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86) was killed while fighting in the Netherlands for the protestant Dutch against their catholic Spanish rulers. Queen Elizabeth I called Sidney "The worthiest knight that lived." If he hadn't died young, many believe he would have become the first great poet of the English Renaissance.