English 3120: Sixteenth-Century Literature
Fall 2015
Prof. M. Elsky
ASSIGNMENT 3: Sidney’s Astrophi & Stella I
Write a 5-7 paper on Sidney’s AS 1.
1) Contextualize the poem by beginning with a description of the Petrarchan love sonnet sequence and Petrarch’s Canzniere, including the treatment of gender.
2) Refer to other poems in AS to describe the larger narrative of AS to explain AS1 in the context of the poem sequence as a whole.
3) Analyze the formal structure of the sonnet according to rhyme scheme (Italian vs. English), and explain how Sidney uses that structure to present a series of metaphors that express his emotional and poetic condition. Explain the metaphors (vehicle and tenor) within each unit of the sonnet.Be sensitive to the syntactic units as well as the rhyme scheme.
Pay attention to the following: Does Sidney use different metaphors for each section?How does Sidney use the sonnet form to control the metaphors and their progression? Your paper should have a focused thesis about the overall use of metaphors in the poem and their meaning. It should analyze the metaphors section by section. Make sure you know the meaning of every word in the poem so you can recognize the metaphors. Your paper should come to a conclusion about Sidney’s use of the sonnet form.
Format:
Typed, 12 pt. Times New Roman font, double-spaced, 1 inch margins.
Quotations:
You must use quotations from the poem, but you must weave them into your own writing. Do not use long quotations, including block quotations; quote only key words and phrases. Use strokes (/) to indicate line breaks.
Sources:
You may use secondary sources to expand on the Petrarchan genre, but do not use any sources about the poem itself. Only peer reviewed books and articles are acceptable sources. The only acceptable internet sources are those that have appeared in peer reviewed print sources (as those found in Googlebooks, jstor, r Project Muse).
Citation:
Citations must be referenced using the MLA format of parenthetical citation keyed to a bibliography of works cited. (In this case, there will be only one work to be cited). The MLA format is available in the MLA Handbook and online.
Plagiarism:
Using any outside sources without attribution is plagiarism. Using someone else’s words without attribution, even if you change some words, is plagiarism. This holds true whether the copied source is a printed book or article, or the internet. Plagiarism
