Loving in Truth," is the first in Philip Sidney's sonnet sequence "Astrophel and Stella.

" The
name of the sonnet sequence echo the romance of their rapport: that of Philip Sidney and
his lady love.Penelope Devereux. "Astro" in Greek means "star," while "phel" or "phil"
implies love .The word 'stella' in Latin signifies 'star'. Therefore, Sidney is a star-lover, his
star being his Stella. He orbits around the luminous Stella, who radiates him with her love
and warmth.. The poet and his beloved together as a couple represent the Greco-Roman
concord of feeling and form. This classical sensibility was revived during the Renaissance
and Sidney exemplifies the same in his sonnet.
The poet asserts that being truly and sincerely in love with his lady love he attempts to
capture his love for her in verse He desires to consecrate his love in poetry so that his
beloved would comprehend his agony. The poet juxtaposes two complementary entities in
the phrase "pleasure of my pain" to signify the bitter-sweet reality of the feeling of love. The
pleasure might enable her to read his poetry; poetry may impart her with knowledge.
Knowledge may win her pity and pity may ultimately lead her to grace. For Sidney, his
'heaven' is her Grace. The poet seeks the appropriate words to aptly describe the "the
blackest face of woe." The poet by doing so, wishes to bring to light the darkest aspects of
his anguish. He first attempts to pen poetry by resorting to inspiration by exploring the works
of others. He turns the leaves of others' works. The phrase 'Studying inventions fine" point
to studying 'fine' readymade inventions of others. Here the word "fine' functions as an
adjective, qualifying the word 'inventions'. On the other hand, the phrase may also be
ambiguous in that it refers to his initial poetic theory, according to which, referring to others'
works for inspiration is 'fine'. He wants some fresh and fruitful showers to fall upon his
sunburnt brain. The idea of rain symbolizes productivity and fertility. His creative abilities are
depicted as parched and dry, devoid of freshness.
His writer's block does not allow words to proceed in a smooth manner. They come forth
'halting', aspiring for persistent creativity or 'Invention's stay'. 'Invention', the requisite to
creativity, is portrayed as Nature's child. It is spontaneous and does not rely on tedious
study that is referred to as a typical Step-mother that fosters but only out of compulsion. It is
not out of natural instinct. Others' 'feet' seemed strangers in his way. The term 'feet' comes
across as a pun here. The term 'feet' may refer to metrical feet here. However, it may also
signify the footsteps of the poet's predecessors that he intends to follow. These footsteps
only lead him to nowhere. Finally, the Muse appears to him and asks him to look to his heart
and write. The Muse may be his Lady love also, since she is the source of his inspiration.
What the poet finally arrives at is the reality that genuine inspiration comes from one's heart
and not from external considerations. Poetry need not always conform to existing
standards, premises and diction. This forms the crux of his poetical theory.
He comes to a sudden realization that only spontaneous inspiration can help the poet compose
good poetry and win the beloved. When he will look into his heart, he will see the image of
Stella, which will provide him with the inspiration and material he needs to write poetry. Thus,
the last line of the sonnet turns out to be a direct statement of Sidneys critical creed that great

poetry does not result from imitation of other poets, but from the expression of personal
experience and passion. Such views on poetic creation are similar to those of the Romantic
poets. He comes to a sudden realization that only spontaneous inspiration can help the poet
compose good poetry and win the beloved. When he will look into his heart, he will see the
image of Stella, which will provide him with the inspiration and material he needs to write poetry.
Thus, the last line of the sonnet turns out to be a direct statement of Sidneys critical creed that
great poetry does not result from imitation of other poets, but from the expression of personal
experience and passion. Such views on poetic creation are similar to those of the Romantic
poets.
In terms of its rhyme scheme abab abab cdcd ee - it is somewhere between what we now call a
Shakespearean sonnet (rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg) and a Petrarchan sonnet (rhyme
scheme: abba abba cde cde). With its final rhyming couplet the poem departs from the Petrarchan
model, and anticipates the sonnet form that would later be perfected by Shakespeare. The effect of
this innovation is to set the final two lines apart from the rest of the poem, as a kind of conclusion.
The poems rhythm is also interesting, because it is written in iambic hexametres rather than the
usual metre for a sonnet, iambic pentametre. In other words it has six beats per line instead of the
usual five. This gives Sidney the opportunity to imitate the French Alexandrine metre by putting a
caesura (a break in the flow of the meaning, such as a comma) in the middle of the line. The
symmetry produced by having the caesura in the middle of line gives these lines a great sense of
balance. This is typical of the so-called Petrarchan school of Elizabethan poetry, of which Sidney
was a part, as this school strove after a refined harmony .

The singleness of emotion that characterizes the Petrarchan sonnet is also distinctly
evident in the present sonnet which is concerned with the emotion of love, rather
dedicated love though graced with the spark of wit here and there. It well echoes the
single and profound emotion of love that Astrophilhas for Stella. There is, no doubt, a
transition in the poets mood from the octave to sestet, but essential unity is nowhere
found missing and the emotional impact remains all through unchangeable. The poets
tone, inspired with the high ideal of love, is expressive of the singleness of the feeling.
Although Loving In Truth is a love poem, it is free from the sentimental hyperbolism or
conventional epithets. There is graceful narration of poets play of wit. The eager lover
expresses his ardent love, with an intellectual in which wit and reason are perfectly
balanced. There is a steady flow of logical sequence of thought to arrive at the
conclusion.
The play of wit is made equally by the use of such figures of speech as the pun, the
personification and so on in the lines bellow:
Invention, Natures child, fled step-dame Studys blows;
And others feet still seemed but strangers in my way.

The personification of Invention as Natures child and Study as step mother is at once
romantic and thought provoking.
Loving In Truth as already been asserted is a characteristic Petrarchan sonnet. Taking as
a whole Sidneys Astrophil and Stella seems to be contiguous and continuous innovators
in the Petrarchan love lyric. Specifically Astrophil and Stella is concerned with the
Problem of desire which engages the Petrarchan poet-lover in a self-questioning state
between his knowledge of Neoplatonic love theory and his own particular experiences in
love as an actual, sensual state of being. The technical feature of such a sonnet is found
by Sidney here inLoving In Truth. The technical purity of 14 lines and the octave- sestet
divisions are maintained by Sidney. The octave consists of poets frantic effort to please
his ladylove by writing love lyrics. The sestet shows his failure and ultimate revelation. In
his use of dictions, metaphorical imagery and epithets are well chosen, simple yet
impressive.