The speaker, Astrophil, begins by telling Stella that anyone who desires to see a perfect example of how Nature best combines Virtue in a beautiful form needs only to look at her, because her beauty reflects her true goodness. In her, that seeker will not find vices because they have left her, not as a result of force or violence, but due to her gentle power of reason over them, as her inner light shines so brightly that the vices cannot stay.
But Stella refuses to find contentment in simply attaining perfection herself. Instead she moves all minds who perceive the beauty and goodness in her to seek such goodness in themselves, her virtue turning the love showered upon her into positive deeds. But despite all of this virtue and the constructive influence that Stella has on the speaker, the sexual desire within him still yearns to be acknowledged and satiated.
Sonnet as a Poetic Form
The poem follows a fairly regular iambic pentameter pattern in each line. The use of the sonnet form corresponds to its convention as the poem of choice for lovers. It prepares the reader for the content of the poem, as well as contributing to the flow and rhythm of the words with the prescribed meter.
The Rhyme Scheme
The first eight lines follow an abbaabba form, while the next four lines change to cdcd, and the poem ends with an ee couplet. This varied use of rhyme marks changes in the subject of the sonnet. The first eight lines all tell simply about the magnitude of Stella’s virtue. The change in the ninth through the twelfth lines signifies a shift to a discussion of the result of that virtue upon those who become enamored with her.
The last two lines continue the shift, with “As fast thy Virtue bends that love to good” (13) providing a segue into the admission of the speaker that “…Desire still cries, ‘give me some food.’” (14). Here Astrophil shares that, despite all of his urges to do good as a result of Stella’s positive influence, he still cannot stifle his carnal desires for her. The couplet helps the reader to observe this shift in thought and makes this final statement stand out from the previous message given by the speaker.
Use of Literary Metaphors
The poem employs an abundance of literary metaphors, particularly at the beginning. The first line mentions the “fairest book of Nature” and the third instructs the searcher to “learn of Love to read in thee.” Then appears a reference to Stella’s “fair lines,” (4), as in the lines of a poem or other literary work. This choice proves to be extremely self-conscious on the part of the sonneteer. He wants the person looking for virtue in beauty to read it, just as the person looking at the sonnet reads in order to understand its meaning and content. Perhaps this power of reading Stella’s good qualities to influence the reader to strive for decency of character also helps to further Sidney’s argument, put forth in his “Defense of Poesy,” that literature has the ability to influence the reader to improve themselves morally.
Personification
Sidney personifies numerous emotions and concepts throughout the poem, including Love, Nature, Virtue, Perfection, and Desire. These personifications make the work more active and vibrant, introducing characters that make it seem more like a story than just merely more proclamations of love from Astrophil. These personifications also hearken back to medieval morality plays, in which similar devices of personified qualities served to teach people moral lessons. In her own way, Stella is a morality play, as men observe her and thus learn how they should behave.
