Loving in truth, and faine in verse my love to show,: Sir Philip Sidney

Loving in truth, and faine in verse my love to show,
That she, dear She, might take some pleasure of my pain,
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe;
Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain,
Oft turning others’ leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sun-burn’d brain,
But words came halting out, wanting Invention’s stay;
Invention, Nature’s child, fled stepdame Study’s blows;
And others’ feet still seem’d but strangers in my way,
Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite,
“Fool.’ Said my Muse to me, ‘look in thy heart and write;


Loving in truth… is a sonnet by Phillip Sidney. It is the first sonnet in his ‘Astrophel and Stella’. This is a poem of love. Here Sidney has used six-feet line or alexandrine. The main theme of the poem is how to write a good poetry and also how to please to his beloved. It is believed that Astrophel and stella associated with his real life. Stella is said to be Penelope Devereux.

At the very beginning of the poem, Sidney clearly said that he is writing this sonnet to win Stella. From the ancient times imitation plays an important role in poetic process. He believed that a good poem should be resourceful and he wants to read well-written love poems. He is trying to find suitable word for his poem.
The poet here seeks to validate its own argument about avoiding sterile imitation rather looking in the heart for inspiration. He realized a good poetry can not be composed without inspiration. So he has to wait for “some fresh and fruitful showers upon sun-burn’d brain”. Here sun refers to Stella, his source of inspiration which has dried up. So words move in a halting and uncertain fashion, lacking the support of invention. Lastly he understood he should look into his heart in order to see the image of his beloved and with the inspiration he will be able to compose a good poetry.