Mary Sidney Herbert

Mary Sidney was the daughter of Sir Henry Sidney, governor of Ireland and Wales; the sister of the famous author Sir Philip Sidney, celebrated as a Protestant martyr; and the wife of Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, one of the richest men in England. Her London house, Baynards Castle, once a royal palace, spread out over several city blocks in the most fashionable district along the Thames River. From there she travelled by boat to the court of Queen Elizabeth and later King James. At her country estate of Wilton House she encouraged poets and scholars, so that her home was known as a ‘little university’. Among her many achievements was a poetic translation of more than seventy percent of the book of Psalms. Women who lived at the time of Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth were not allowed to attend university, but like her queen she had excellent tutors at home, she was fluent in Latin, and she translated French and Italian works. In her own day, Mary Sidney was celebrated as the author of English poems based on the Hebrew Psalms. Her brother Philip had completed the first forty-three Psalms before his untimely death, and she honored his memory by translating Psalms 44-150, including the lengthy poems of Psalm 119. Mary Sidney was an excellent poet, praised by the leading male authors of her day for the ‘sweetness’ of her verse. In her Psalms versions, she adds wordplay and expands metaphors present in her originals, like the snake in Psalm 58. She can vividly capture an experience.

The poem, "O", begins with a conventional image of God lighting the way and establishes the sense that everything the poet does will be in response to God’s pure word, which will clear the paths ahead of her and guide her every step. The second stanza refers to the ‘grief’ and anguish Mary Sidney Herbert feels. How does this stanza reflect the nature of her relationship with God? In the third stanza, the poet talks of the dangers and temptations that may lie around her. How does she convey her response to those imagined dangers? In the final stanza, Mary Sidney Herbert proclaims her belief in scripture and the word of God that has been passed down to her. How does she use language to end the poem on a note of passionate, willing subjugation to God’s plan?