Pamphilia to Amphilanthus

Pamphilia to Amphilanthus is a sonnet sequence by the English Renaissance poet Lady Mary Wroth, first published as part of The Countess of Montgomery's Urania in 1621, but subsequently published separately.[1] It is the second known sonnet sequence by a woman writer in England (the first was by Anne Locke).[2] The poems are strongly influenced by the sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella (1580) penned by her uncle Sir Philip Sidney. Like Sidney's sequence, Wroth's sonnets passed among her friends and acquaintances in manuscript form before they were published in 1621.[3] In Wroth's sequence, she upends Petrarchan tropes by making the unattainable object of love male (as opposed to female).

  1. ^ "Pamphilia to Amphilanthus". Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
  2. ^ Locke, Anne. "A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner". Luminarium. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  3. ^ An exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library, including Lady Mary Wroth's Manuscripts