“Sonnet 24” from Astrophil and Stella by Sir Philip Sidney, 1591; p 490

 

As another Petrarchan sonnet published in a sequence, this excerpt was selected as a religious core message within this anthology. The overall message here is that earthly wealth means nothing in the Kingdom of God and will not earn an individual salvation. The more we have, the more we are tempted to obtain, and we lose sight of that foundation in our faith. We must remain grounded in the Lord and remind ourselves of what is important. It may be hard to find a balance between ambitions and religion, but this poem aims to check that prioritization we have been doing. We should expand our love of Christ more than we expand our bank accounts:

      “Rich fools there be, whose base and filthy heart

Lies hatching still the goods wherein they flow,

And damning their own selves to Tantal’s smart,

Wealth breeding want, more blist, more wretched grow.

Yet to those fools heav’n such wit doth impart,

As what their hands do hold, their heads do know,

And knowing, love, and loving, lay apart

As sacred things, far from all danger’s show.

But that rich fool, who by blind Fortune’s lot

The richest gem of love and life enjoys,

And can with foul abuse such beauties blot,

Let him, deprived of sweet but unfelt joys,

(Exiled for aye from those high treasures which

He knows not) grow in only folly rich.”