¶ … microtheme poem- Astrophil Stella Sidney link: http://pages.uoregon./rbear/Stella.html a microtheme analysis
Arguably, the most vital aspect of Sir Phillip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella is the initial sonnet that begets this lengthy work. There are several different facets of this particular poem within this longer work that make it highly important to the interpretation to the rest of it. Moreover, the author is able to employ a lengthy metaphor within this first poem that helps to account for the diffuse nature of the complete work. An analysis of this first poem reveals that it provides the source of inspiration for the lengthy love poem of Astrophel and Stella -- which is actually a series of poems and songs depicting this torrid love affair.
The reader can infer that this initial poem is the source of inspiration for all of the others in this body of work due to a sophisticated metaphor the author utilizes to describe this particular work. It is interesting to note that in the very first few lines of this poem, the author explicitly denotes that this entire collection of poems are written in the hopes that the maiden, Stella,...
Still, when it comes to actually forming the words that may inspire the maiden such, the poet employs a metaphor in which he likens his
brain (which is responsible for his writing) to
land and the product of that land to the writing which may win Stella. The difficulty that the poet incurs in effecting this process is implied by the
description of his brain as "sun-burned" (Sidney), which implies it lacks the proper irrigation and
water to make it harvest words. Therefore, the poet longs for "fresh and fruitful showers" (Sidney) in order to produce the words that will eventually win Stella.
This metaphor is effectively extended within the rest of this initial sonnet. What the poet actually desires is a production of words, which is actually creation. As such, his metaphor…
