Proportional Form in the Poetry of Robert Sidney and Mary Wroth

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the proportional form in the poetry of Robert Sidney, Phillip's younger brother and Mary Wroth, Robert's daughter. Committed to the poetic tradition of their family, both poets displayed formal connections with Phillip Sidney's sonnet sequence. A look into the structure of Robert Sidney's poems reveals that his poetry was being arranged in a particular pattern that resembles the form of Astrophil and Stella. Although Robert Sidney proposed alternative sequence in his poetry, the majority of the proportions found in his poetry were emulations from the metrical forms and patterns found within Phillip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella. Mary Wroth's poetry likewise reflects the proportional form found in the poetry of Phillip Sidney. Her Pamphilia to Amphilanthus resembles the clarity and the poise of the formal arrangement of Astrophil and Stella compared to the more convoluted form of Robert Sidney's sequence. Both sought to govern their verses within the scheme of Phillip Sidney's poetry, and the complexities of forms they have achieved display their dedication to his example.