Sidney’s “Sonnet 79” is part of sonnet sequence titled, Astrophil and Stella. The entire sequence concentrates on the theme of unrequited love. Astrophil is the lover and Stella is the beloved, whose love he covets.
The sonnets display various innovative combinations of the Petrarchan and Elizabethan forms. Sonnet 79, for example, breaks into the octave and sestet, which further break into quatrains and tercets, with the rime-scheme itself combining both Petrarchan and Elizabethan schemes: ABBA ABBA CDC DGG. Thus, the sonnet ends with a couplet, just as the Elizabethan sonnet always does.
First Quatrain: “Sweet kiss, thy sweets I fain would sweetly endite”
The speaker imagines and muses on the kiss of his beloved. He fancies the experience so sweet that he uses the term “sweet,” or a form of it, six times in the first two lines: “Sweet kiss, thy sweets I fain would sweetly endite, / Which even of sweetness sweetest sweet'ner art.”
He then asserts that such a “pleasing” act would not only include the sense of lips touching but would also make all of the senses come alive with pleasure. He insists that such an event of the pair, like “coupling doves,” would also please the goddess of love.
Second Quatrain: “Best charge, and bravest retreat in Cupid's fight”
The speaker then lists a number of other ways that the kiss of his beloved would provide him greatest pleasure: it would resemble the mêlée of “Cupid’s fight” and “open” the heart. It would provide such a “rich” experience that would duplicate the gift that Cupid gives as he heralds love from lovers. He likens that kiss to a “nest of young joys” and says that it would be like a teacher who teaches delight.
First Tercet: “Teaching the mean at once to take and give”
Like a “schoolmaster,” the kiss would teach them both the pleasures of “take and give.” The yielding of each partner would offer a “friendly fray.” But the “blow” each receives would “both wound and heal.” And the feigned death would only allow each to live more fully in the other.
Second Tercet: “Poor hope's first wealth, hostage of promis'd weal”
In the second tercet, as the speaker is winding up his fantasy, he claims that his dream is only “poor hope’s first wealth.” And his fancy is merely a “hostage of promised” enjoyment, like a “breakfast of love,” upon which he will sadly not be feasting.
Then he exclaims “lo! lo!” and queries after the lady’s whereabouts. He cannot even locate her at the moment, so he decides instead of this continued fantasy wherein he “praise[s]” the prospects of the luscious kiss, he has to begin praying that he will be able to receive a kiss from the lady.
