Question

Can someone help me with Sidney Sonnet 31 and 39 questions?

The sonnets are at the bottom if you need them.

1. The unifying theme of Sidney's Sonnets 31 and 39 is...

a. natural beauty
b. hopeless love
c. relief from pain
d. endless suffering


2. Which of the following is a characteristic of Sidney's Sonnets 31 and 39?

a. The speaker is engaged in an internal conflict
b. Heavenly body stimulates the speaker's thoughts
c. The speaker accepts that his love is lost
d. The speaker sees Stella's image in his sleep


3. Sidney's Sonnets 31 and 39 illustrate what characteristics of the sonnet sequence?

a. The poet is scorned by his lover.
b. Relationships are presented in a true-to-life way.
c. The heavens are employed symbolically.
d. The ultimate outcome is left unresolved.

I got the answers c,a, and a, but I'm not sure if they're right.



Sonnet 31

With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies!
How silently, and with how wan a face!
What, may it be that even in heavenly place
That busy archer his sharp arrow tries?
Sure, if that long-with-love acquainted eyes
Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case,
I read it in thy looks; thy languished grace,
To me, that feel the like, thy state descries.
Then, even of fellowship, O Moon, tell me
Is constant love deemed there but want of wit?
Are beauties there as proud as here they be?
Do they above love to be loved, and yet
Those lovers scorn whom that love doth possess?
Do they call virtue there ungratefulness?


Sonnet 39

Come Sleep! O Sleep, the certain knot of peace,
The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release,
The indifferent judge between the high and low;
With shield of proof, shield me from out the prease
Of those fierce darts Despair at me doth throw;
O make in me those civil wars to cease;
I will good tribute pay, if thou do so.
Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed,
A chamber deaf to noise and blind to light,
A rosy garland and a weary head:
And if these things, as being thine by right,
Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt in me,
Livelier than elsewhere, Stella's image see.

Answer 1

I think you're right for #s 2 and 3, but think about your answer for #3 -- and then rethink #1.

Answer 2

1. c
2. a
3. c

Answer 3

Turn in your own smooth, expressive paraphrase of Sidney’s Sonnet 31 here.