Poetry 5: " Come Sleep !" Philip Sydney (Sonnet 39)

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Poetry 5

Come Sleep !" Philip Sydney ( Sonnet 39)"


Whenever you comment or analyze on any poems you have to write
the poet's and the poem's name . Explain the given lines only . Then
write the figures of speech in the poem ex. Metaphor , irony , simile ,…..
. etc .In what tone it is written , rhyme scheme , the meter
. The significance of the line have to be mentioned
Sometimes the poet use the last line to summarize the whole idea ,
. sometimes we have a climatic line in the poem
You have to cover all these points in your analyses . Write a topic
sentence in your answer . The title of the poem should be written between
." " . Commentary means technicality of writing
The theme is a topic sentence and I will leave an outline in the coping
center to know how to write it and how to make a comparison and what
are its mechanics of comparison . Also I notice there is a kind of
confusing between the style and the technique . The style is the way that
the poet is overall look of the poem example the lyrical poems in the
patriarchal sonnets should be written in the same style . Technicality
means the poet usage for figures of speech , tone , … etc . So you have
. to mention one example
Again there are some of the lines which summarize the whole idea or the
. climax in the poem
There are many advises which are given by the dr. around the style of
studying for example rewrite what you study , write in your own style ,

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use right punctuation , tenses , style , grammar , you should study daily
. and along out discussion ……etc

Come Sleep" Philip Sydney ( Sonnet 39)"


,Come sleep, oh sleep, the certain knot of peace
The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release,
Th'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:
Oh 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.

. The image of Arostophil and Stella is in this sonnet


? What is Astrophil and Stella
Astrophil and Stella means group sonnets written on the theme of love. It
is a sonnet cycle .
.Astrophil is the star lover , Stella is the star
Sonnet sequence is a sequence of sonnets , Astrophil and Stella is 108
sonnets written on the theme of love . A star similar to petrarchan we

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have a lover always complaining . Sonnet 39 the speaker expect that her
. lover Stella is rejecting his love
Come sleep, oh sleep, the certain knot of peace,
The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release,
;Th'indifferent judge between the high and low
In the octave the speaker is addressing sleep . " come " it is
personification , he can not sleep because of suffering and thinking of his
. lover . The speaker wants sleep to come , he is begging sleep to come
Knot means tie
At the beginning he is addressing sleep as a man who can come and help
.him. He says that you are a world of peace in his mind
. The baiting place of wit Wit is intelligence
‫ مرهم البلسم‬. the balm means relieving and relaxation
Sleep is a kind of rest from worries, where the mind can relax .Sleep is a
. kind of relaxation and rest
The poor man's wealth, It's the poor man's wealth and for a prisoner
through sleeping , he can go beyond the walls of his prison and can
. dream during sleeping
Sleep is the baiting place of wit, the balm of woe, the poor man's
wealth, the prisoner's release, Th'indifferent judge between the high
and low;
Th'indifferent judge between the high and low
Sleep is like a judge , sleep is a very objective and indifferent judge ,
sleep is fair. It doesn't differentiate between high classes and low classes
because all of us need sleep in the same way and that's why it's

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indifferent judge between the higher and the lower classes .He is an
. impartial fair judge
With shield of proof shield me from out the prease
Of those fierce darts, Despair at me doth throw:
Oh make in me those civil wars to cease;
I will good tribute pay if thou do so:
After all of this begging for sleep to come and all these characteristics
which are given to sleep , now he is asking sleep to use shield . Shield is
a piece of metallic piece darts means the arrow in which the warrior
uses it . The speaker asking for protection from his beloved ."of those
fierce darts " means very dangerous arrows . Fierce darts is like a chain
so he wants sleep to come and protect him from these fierce arrows . This
is a metaphor . The speaker is thinking for his beloved who rejects him .
Despair at me doth throw
Despair is capitalized , despair is not a human being so there is
personification .
Oh make in me those civil wars to cease;
I will good tribute pay if thou do so:
There is a kind of civil war , so he is struggling . to cease means to end
the war . He is asking , requesting , begging sleep .If you help me to
overcome these feelings , I will say you tribute and I will you a valuable
gift to satisfy you , like what ?
Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed,
A chamber deaf to noise and blind to light;
A rosy garland, and a weary head;
Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed
Chamber is a room without any noise , it is like a very quiet isolated
room . Without light . It is very rich language . He will give sleep a very

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smooth pillows, a sweet bed, a chamber quiet and dark room, a rosy
garland . .His head is tired because of his suffering
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.
He is offering all these things to sleep to take them as his own and come
and give him heavy sleep because when it's heavy, it's sweet and let him
see Stella’s image. He wants to see Stella . Very ironic .
He is having a conflict between reason and emotions, between loving
this lady and trying to dismiss her from his own heart. His reason is
pushing him to abandon her and think of something more important such
as patriotism and serving his own country and his emotions are pushing
him in the other direction towards her. That's why he calls it a civil war in
line 7 and he is asking sleep to stop it.
When he sees Stella , it is a sort of relaxation when he sees her .He
wants to give sleep many sweet things . It is very ironical because he is
complaining of suffering and he wants to see her image , he doesn’t want
to dream but he wants to see her , he wants to stop the war inside him . It
is a war between the head and the heart , the reason and motions
This kind is a metaphorical poem because it has many figures of
speech .
Sleep is something abstract . It is a kind of apostrophe it is a figure of
speech when you talks about something which is not a human being and
address it as a human being to give you good answer so sleep here is a
kind apostrophe . In this poem the speaker is requesting and begging

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sleep to come . What is the reason of requesting? Because he is
suffering . But ironically he wants to see Stella .
The couplet is the last two lines and they summarize the idea of
seeing Stella .The rhyme scheme in the Petrarchan sonnet is abab
abab cdcd ee and in the English sonnet or Shakespearian is abab
cdcd efef .
? How does the form support the theme
From line 1 to 8 there is a kind of repetition of rhyme scheme abab abab .
Then there is a shifting cdcd but it is not conclusion . ee is the conclusion .
. Sidny writes in different rhythms
In poetry every punctuation has a special meaning . Come Sleep ! means if
the sleep comes
The image is he wants to escape from Stella in reality to Stella in the
imagination ( the imaginative Stella )
In this poem there is a division of thoughts
In line 4 he is addressing sleep to come and he speaks about his own
worries , he wants to protect himself from despair and civil war . In line 8
he will give sleep some precious and valuable things . In line 10 if these
things are not enough so he will give them more . Then he gives . It is one
. sided love
The theme : courtly love

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