Summary of Sidney's Loving in Truth.

'Loving in Truth' is not the title of any poem. It is the first sonnet in Sidney's sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella. In this sequence of 108 sonnets and 11 songs(1591) Sidney presents the story of his thwarted love for Penelope Devereus. In this poem he brings into focus two things together - the eternal power of one and poetry.

      Sidney says that he had been trying to compose verse in which he would show the pain of his love for his beloved so that the beloved would read his poem and show sympathy for him. But he was in a state in which inspiration was not working. So he tried to borrow words from the works of other poets. But poetry does not allow this. 'Study', that is learning is the step-daughter of Invention, that is imagination,so the two could not go on together. The poet was in wilderness; his heart was full of passion but could not find expression for want of words. At this critical moment the Muse intervened and advised to look into his heart and write.

     Thus the poem records two things. One, that poetry is a veritable means of conveying love and pleasing the lady-love. The other is that the spring of poetry is the poet's own heart. In other words, the poet asserts the naturalness of creativity. It should be mentioned that during Elizabethan times poetry and the poet was given a very high standing. Indeed many of the poets used poetry not only to celebrate their love but also to proclaim their own immortality and also of their  love through poetry which they assumed would at last till the Day of Judgement.