And that stanza on page 577—
Think of that most grateful time!
When my leaping heart will climb
In my lips to have his biding!
There those roses for to kiss,
Which do breathe a sugared bliss;
Opening rubies, pearls dividing.
So that in this one part of his ways, SIDNEY is our Poet of kissing.
With these, we may put that sportive appeal to "Grammar rules" at p. 534; that radiant description of STELLA in a boat on the Thames at p. 554; and these lines at p. 538.
Sonnets be not bound 'prentice to ANNOY:
Trebles sing high, as well as basses deep:
Grief, but LOVE'S winter livery is: the boy
Hath cheeks to smile as well as eyes to weep.
There is in all this a happy joyousness, a delicate glee, a gladsome playfulness that we should hardly have associated with a man of SIDNEY'S strength and breadth of character; and one, too, so addicted to the athletic sports of the time.
But he could also write in other moods: as to those apostrophes to the Moon at p. 518, to Sleep at p. 522, to the highway to STELLA'S house at p. 545, and to Absence at p. 547: with the description of Jealousy at p. 542.
Consider also that wonderful FIFTH SONG at p. 564! There SIDNEY makes such cruel words as Thief! Tyrant! Rebel! Runaway! Witch! and Devil! subservient by the slightest tincture of bathos, to the beatification of STELLA. This Poem also offers in the sententious line which closes each of its stanzas, some ready examples of their Author's powers as a Thoughtful as distinguished from an Amorous Poet. Many similar lines are scattered up and down the Sonnets: and, in particular, nearly the whole of the Sonnets XXIII. and LI. illustrate this characteristic. Of which, we also take the following further instance from p. 530. Addressing the Muses, he says:—
And oft whole troops of saddest words I stayed,
Striving abroad a foraging to go;
Until by your inspiring, I might know
How their black banner might be best displayed.
