19 pages • 38 minutes read
Sonnet 1
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Symbols & Motifs
Nature
Nature is a motif that develops the themes of Studying Versus Personal Invention and Producing Poetry as Bearing Children. One example of this motif is the metaphoric “fresh and fruitful showers upon [the author’s] sunburned brain” (Line 8). The rain and sun represent flowing poetic inspiration and the lack of inspiration, respectively. Creativity is fluid and mobile, while academic study is associated with the hot and painful sun. Nature appears again as the parent of invention, as Sidney describes “Invention, Nature’s child” (Line 10). The creativity of invention comes organically, like rain, rather than systematically, like academic study.
Sidney also highlights nature using leaves. He claims to be “[o]ft turning others’ leaves” (Line 7) and looking for water to flow from them. However, this is impossible when Sidney is not inverting the growing ends of branches to gather rainwater but instead turning leaves as in turning the pages of a book. Sidney’s muse confirms the importance of nature at the conclusion of the poem, when the muse declares that he should be seeking inspiration among the leaves of plants—the flora of earth—rather than the leaves of manuscripts.
Books and Writing
Books and writing are another motif that develops the theme of Studying Versus Personal Invention. The books that Sidney studies, and writes, are manuscripts—not printed books. Manuscripts are often heavily illustrated and written in beautiful script by hand. A page of a manuscript is a leaf, which is folium in Latin, and together, the leaves become a folio. Sidney “turning others’ leaves” (Line 7) is him reading folios, which are sometimes loose in manuscript form, rather than bound, making them even more like the leaves of trees. Despite the similarities between the leaves of trees and the loose leaves of manuscripts, Sidney argues for personal invention over studying as a method for writing poetry.
Children
Children symbolize poetry and poetic devices in “Sonnet 1.” The concept of invention, or creativity, is “Nature’s child” (Line 10). Coming up with new combinations of words is a natural, intuitive act. Furthermore, this symbolism draws on children’s capacity for imagination. Children’s imaginations are freer and more productive than adults’ imaginations in many cases. The act of imagining is a playful one, not one associated with work. In this way, the symbolism of children develops the theme of Studying Versus Personal Invention. Children don’t participate in analytical research, and this research can stifle the imagination.
The poem also includes pregnancy symbolism, arguing that a poet full of creative ideas is akin to being pregnant with a child, which lends to the theme of Producing Poetry as Bearing Children. Sidney is “great with child to speak” (Line 12), meaning that he is full of ideas. These ideas are ready to burst forth from him like a child from a mother’s womb at the end of her pregnancy. Male poets in the renaissance indeed associated their craft with feminine imagery of procreation, which casts them not only as creators of art but also as parents of each creation.
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