Sir Philip Sidney

On BBC 3 Breakfast this morning, a reminder of the birthday of Sir Philip Sidney, 30 November 1554

Guillaume Tessier, In a grove most rich of shade

Performer: Christopher Wilson. Author: Sir Philip Sidney. Singer: Paul Agnew

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From the CD: "O Sweet Woods the Delight of Solitarienesse - Lovesongs  and Sonnets of John Donne and Sir Philip Sidney", Metronome

Other interpretations:

Tessier: In A Grove Most Rich Of Shade (Monika Mauch, Nigel North)

The Consort of Musicke

The poem:

The Eighth Song of Astrophil and Stella


Since nature's works be good

Funeral procession of Sir Philip Sidney, 1587
Pallbearers, Theodor de Bry


More poems


Portraits (National Portrait Gallery)

Leave me, O Love, which reachest but to dust; 

And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things; 

Grow rich in that which never taketh rust; 

Whatever fades but fading pleasure brings. 

Draw in thy beams and humble all thy might 

To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be; 

Which breaks the clouds and opens forth the light, 

That both doth shine and give us sight to see. 

O take fast hold; let that light be thy guide 

In this small course which birth draws out to death, 

And think how evil becometh him to slide, 

Who seeketh heav'n, and comes of heav'nly breath. 

Then farewell, world; thy uttermost I see: 

Eternal Love, maintain thy life in me. 

Sir Philip Sidney

from Certain Sonnets


Sir Philip Sidney's Lamentation, Robert Spencer