Four...Sonnets...Made When his Lady Had Pain in her Face,
Sir Philip
Sidney
This sequence of four sonnets was first published in 1598 as part of the
first collected edition of Sidney's works. The four sonnets appear in a
section entitled Certain Sonnets and are
grouped (in the order listed below) under this general title: "These
Four Following Sonnets Were Made When his Lady Had Pain in her Face."
Since there is no actual documentation of who she was or what the "pain
in her face" might have been, Sidney has left interpretation up to his
audience. Much of the poetry appearing in Certain
Sonnets shows Sidney's pessimism about desire and the possible
refining power of love.
(William A. Ringler, Jr. edited the complete poems of Sidney, including
Certaine Sonnets, in 1962.)
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