Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella Sonnet 20 versus Shakespeare's Sonnet 130

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In Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella Sonnet 20 and William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, both are talking about love. Love in a romantic relationship, yet they seem very different from each other. Sir Philip Sidney’s is the traditional Petrarchan sonnet and Shakespeare’s have his own style of sonnet. Take a side on the type of sonnets, the two sonnets shares some more differences. The love object in Astrophil and Stella Sonnet 20 and Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare are very unlike, the former one fits all the conventional beauty and the latter one is opposite; the treatment of love is different as well, Sir Philip Sidney illustrate it in a violence way and Shakespeare describe it in a more comforting way. The major difference is the distance between the persona and the love object. Astrophil and Stella Sonnet 20 is so far away, it is unreachable and Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare is reachable and close enough to see the love object clearly. The two sonnets are so different is many ways, yet they share similarities. They have resemblance themes, which is love is rare and love is lack of judgment. The love relationships in the sonnets are very romantic and only the perspective of love separated them. One choose to see love from a distance, another choose to take a closer look. No matter what approach the poets use or what perspective the poets have, love shares its own nature of being arbitrary and let lovers see what they wanted to see.

For the love object, in Astrophil and Stella Sonnet 20, Stella is a goddess that fits in all the conventional beauty and in Sonnet 130; the mistress is an opposite with Stella. In Astrophil and Stella Sonnet 20, Stella barely exists. “As that sweet black which veils the heavenly eye” (line 7), shows th...

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...that caused by his unreachable love. In Shakespeare’s sonnet, the persona chosen to take a risk, to look at love in close distance and he get to see it clearly, reality is cruel. The persona use acceptance and told himself and others not to compare beauty. Maybe this is the persona’s therapy to fall in love with an ugly woman. Love is as mischievous and playful as cupid, looking it from a distance can get hurt and looking it too close can cause pain as well. By knowing it, people still want love and to be loved as they say love is blind and it will suppress your logical thinking. After looking at these sonnet, talking about different types of love and different perspective towards love objects,” beauty is in the eye of the beholder” seems like therapy statement that people use to heal from the cupid playful attack

Works Cited

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130

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