Sir Philip Sidney's Leave Me ,O Love -Critical appreciation

 

Leave Me ,O  Love Which Reachest  But To Dust-Critical appreciation

Sir Philip Sidney is reputed to be the most Petrarchan of all the Elizabethan sonneteers ,but the sonnet Leave me, O Love taken from “Certain Sonnets”, makes a contradictory statement because it  follows  the Shakespearean division of the sonnet into three quatrain followed by couplet . Sidney is well known for his sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella which reveals his affection for Penelope Devereux. But this sonnet pleads for divine love and renunciation of materialistic world. The theme of this sonnet is the transcendental love for the timeless, and a desire to leave all love that is ephemeral. The theme has resemblance with Vaughn’s The Retreat where the poet expressed a similar wish of returning to heaven the abode of God and absolute purity.

The very first line of the sonnet marks a rejection of the materialistic world that is destined to die.

“ Leave  me , O  Love ,  which  reaches  but  to dust ”

The mention of the word “dust” calls into one’s mind the concept of memento mori ,the concept that all objects and beings on this material world are made of dust, and that they will again turn into dust beyond a certain time .Notably, this line resonates the famous utterance of Grey in Elegy. “All  paths of glory leads but to dust”. Instead of being engrossed in the “fading” objects that can only provide “fading pleasures” or transitory enjoyment , the speaker craves for that pleasure which “never taketh rust”. It is a metaphor in which all sorts of earthly enjoyments are compared to the impure iron that are prove to rusting , and the pleasure from divine objects is compared to that seasoned metal which never decays.

              The second quatrain states how to prepare oneself for the reception of that supreme pleasure . It is through complete dedication to God:

“. . .thy  Beams  and  humble all  thy  might .

To  that  sweet  yoke  where  lasting. . .”

This humbling is also suggested in God’s Grandeur by Hopkins who ,through the metaphor of the crushing of lemon , suggested for the annihilation of all sorts of ego before receiving that transcendental flash which radiates from the embodiment of supreme purity .The image of yoke represents complete dedication to the will of God .It is a paradox of mystery , and Milton , too, found that it is through bearing the yoke of God , that one can serve Him most. (“…to bear that mild yoke”, on his Blindness”)

          The ‘clouds’ mentioned here is the mental blockage due to attraction for what is materialistic and earthly . Only through complete submission that one can have a glimpse of the divine light that begins to pierce through the dark cloud . When one receives the touch of this celestial light, One gets new insight and self-realization . It makes one a sublime creature:

“. . .  opens  forth  the  light

That  both  doth  shine  and  give  us  sight  to  see.”

In the last quatrain , the poet passionately wishes the light to be his guide , not towards materialistic prosperity , but towards perpetual emancipation of the soul . Already , on this earth where he has briefly arrived through birth , he has encountered diverse forms of sins which caused him to slide away from the path of righteousness and from heaven wherefrom his soul has descended(“who seeketh  heav’n and comes from heav’nly breath”).

He , therefore, decides to renounce the materialistic , ephemeral pleasures in favour of eternal light:

“ The  farewell  , world ;  thy  uttermost  I  see;

Eternal  love ,  maintain  thy  life  in  me.”

       The last line gives the impression that the poet has almost accepted his mortality and is prepared for his death to reach the realm of “ Eternal love” and light ,the same wish which Vaughan expressed in his poem The Retreat .But many historical records indicate that the poem was composed even before Sidney began to write Astrophel and Stella . So, we can assume that his divine love later gave way to human love, love for Penelope Devereux, and his penchant for Shakespearean style to Petrarchan.