SOURCE: “Manner Over Matter,” in Symmetry and Sense: The Poetry of Sir Philip Sidney, University of Texas Press, 1961, pp. 9–29.

In the following excerpt, Montgomery examines “symmetry” in the poetry of The Lady of May, the Psalms, and the Arcadia, and says that they reflect a strong experimental spirit that is not found in Astrophel and Stella.

It is common to assume that the Lady of May poems, the translations of the Psalms, the Arcadia poems, Astrophel and Stella, and the miscellaneous pieces in Certaine Sonets follow a steady chronology of composition from 1578 to approximately 1583. Theodore Spencer's essay on Sidney's poetic development assumes that order and establishes an ascending hierarchy of quality upon it.¹ Unfortunately, the problem is not so neat. The Lady of May is easily dated because it was performed for a visit of the queen at Wanstead, the Earl of Leicester's castle, but William Ringler's investigations...