Submit a Poem
Get Your Premium Membership
spacer



Photo of Sir Philip Sidney

Sidney, Sir Philip

Sir Philip Sidney became one of the Elizabethan Age's most prominent figures. Famous in his day in England as a poet, courtier and soldier, he remains known as the author of Astrophel and Stella (1581, pub. 1591), The Defence of Poetry and The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (1580, pub. 1590).. Elizabethan era English poet courtier and soldier

Email Poem - Sir Philip Sidney - Astrophel and Stella: XXIIIEmail Poem

Sir Philip Sidney - Astrophel and Stella: XXIII

 The curious wits, seeing dull pensiveness
Bewray itself in my long-settl'd eyes,
Whence those same fumes of melancholy rise,
With idle pains and missing aim do guess.
Some, that know how my spring I did address,
Deem that my Muse some fruit of knowledge plies;
Others, because the prince my service tries,
Think that I think state errors to redress;
But harder judges judge ambition's rage--
Scourge of itself, still climbing slipp'ry place--
Holds my young brain captiv'd in golden cage.
O fool or over-wise! alas, the race
Of all my thoughts hath neither stop nor start
But only Stella's eyes and Stella's heart.



Comments