Sonnet 31 "With how sad steps, O Moon"
E639316
Sonnet 31, "With how sad steps, O Moon," is a famous lyric in Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella sequence that uses an apostrophe to the moon to explore unrequited love and emotional melancholy.
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
English Renaissance poem
ⓘ
lyric poem ⓘ sonnet ⓘ |
| addressedTo | the Moon NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| asks | whether the Moon knows the pains of love ⓘ |
| author | Sir Philip Sidney NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| belovedCharacter | Stella NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| circulatedWith | other sonnets in Astrophil and Stella ⓘ |
| collectionPublicationCentury | 16th century ⓘ |
| compares | the Moon’s sadness to the lover’s sadness ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | England ⓘ |
| explores |
the pain of unreturned affection
ⓘ
the universality of love’s woes ⓘ |
| firstLine | With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb’st the skies! ⓘ |
| form | sonnet sequence component ⓘ |
| genre | love sonnet ⓘ |
| imagery |
celestial imagery
ⓘ
love-sickness imagery ⓘ |
| influencedBy | Petrarchan love poetry ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| laterMedium | print ⓘ |
| literaryDevice |
conceit
ⓘ
rhetorical question ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | Elizabethan literature NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | English Renaissance NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| metricalForm | iambic pentameter ⓘ |
| notableFor |
adaptation of Petrarchan motifs to English verse
ⓘ
intimate apostrophe to a celestial body ⓘ psychological introspection of the lover ⓘ |
| originalMedium | manuscript circulation ⓘ |
| partOf | Astrophil and Stella NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| primaryTheme |
emotional suffering
ⓘ
melancholy ⓘ unrequited love ⓘ |
| questions | the constancy and virtue of the beloved ⓘ |
| secondaryTheme |
courtly love conventions
ⓘ
projection of feelings onto nature ⓘ self-pity ⓘ |
| sequenceNumber | 31 ⓘ |
| setIn | a night sky scene ⓘ |
| speaker | Astrophil NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| studiedIn |
English poetry surveys
ⓘ
Renaissance literature courses ⓘ |
| tone |
contemplative
ⓘ
melancholic ⓘ |
| usesFigureOfSpeech |
apostrophe
ⓘ
personification ⓘ |
| usesRhymeScheme | Petrarchan-influenced rhyme scheme ⓘ |
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.