Publisher's Synopsis
Sir Philip Sidney, whose life was tragically cut short at the age of 31, is now regarded as one of the most important poets of the Elizabethan era. A contemporary of Shakespeare, he was an influential figure at court, and was regarded by some as almost a crown Prince.;This short selection represents the full range of Sidney's remarkable poetic gifts, and includes "Astrophil and Stella", "The New Arcadia" and "The Defence of Poesy", as well as a number of shorter lyrics.;The book reveals that beneath the often dazzling verbal asserance and prosodic talent was a vein of profound melancholy. This lends greater weight to the conventional forms of amorous complaint, and resonance of his verse has been compared to "the sound of gongs beaten under water" by one critic. Throughout his short career he displayed the greatest confidence which, had he lived, would have been triumphantly vindicated through the works of his younger contemporaries - Marlowe, Donne, Jonson and Shakespeare. Katherine Duncan-Jones is the author of the biography, "Sir Philip Sidney: Courtier Poet".
