Expression and Emotion in "With how sad step" Abi Bacon College

Courtier Sir Philip Sidney was a prominent and highly influential literary figure in the Elizabethan age. Critics agree that Sidney was ahead of his time as a writer, and Alexander Gavin refers to the 1590’s as a decade in which he ‘dominated literary culture’,[1] despite his death 4 years earlier. His most famous works include Astrophel and Stella, a sequence consisting of 108 sonnets and 11 songs. The progression of sonnets follow the speakers emotional state as he endures in an initially unrequited love affair, which results in his lover ending the relationship after she realises they are incompatible. In the thirty first sonnet,[2] Sidney draws on a more sinister side of love, and in particular the suffering endured after it is lost or unrequited. The sonnet carries a deep sense of misery and bewilderment as the speaker tenderly begins to come to terms with rejection. It is widely accepted that Astrophel acts as a parallel to Sidney’s and his own heartbreak[3] and a strong feeling of pathos is established through the speakers questioning of the fate of love. By confiding in the moon, the speaker is able to express his feelings in confidence as well as relate to it, which acts as a source of comfort to the distressed...