The entire sonnet is epideictic, running style

(Continued:)

The underlying message in this sonnet appears to be the internal conflict between desire and guilt, between perceptions of good vs. evil.  The mere intent - the lust, the desire - is instantly
compromised by feelings of shame.  Changing tenses between future (mad in pursuit ,. . a joy proposed) to present (enjoy’d . . having . . in possession) to past (despised, prov’d a very woe, a dream) takes the reader from one extreme to the next.  The final conclusion:  the world knows the pleasure, no one knows how to stop.
JOANNE MUELLER

from Sidney's ASTROPHEL AND STELLA
SONNET I

1     Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
2     That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,--
3     Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
4     Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,--
5     I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe;
6     Studying inventions fine her wits to entertain,
7     Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
8     Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburn'd brain.
9     But words came halting forth, wanting invention's stay;
10   Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows;
11   And others' feet still seem'd but strangers in my way.
12   Thus great with child to speak and helpless in my throes,
13   Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite,
14   "Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write."

Astrophel writes this sonnet to Stella expressing a paradox that studying the masters hinders his ability to write truly and creatively.  He feels that creation and invention are halted by
studying, and he expresses that he is pregnant with ideas and bursting to be able to put them on paper.  The sonnet portrays the artist's struggle with outside influences and the stiffling
effect of learning and studies on his art.
:
1     Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
:     Epanalepsis(love)
2     That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,--
:     Diacope(That she dear she)emphasizing "she",alliteration    
(Pleasure,pain)expressing how opposing feelings can take place
togther
3     Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
:    
4     Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,--
:     Ellipses(Knowledge might pity) projecting the struggle onto
knowledge, Anadiplosis(pity win and pity)
5     I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe;
:     Metaphor for death(blackest feace of woe)
6     Studying inventions fine her wits to entertain,
:    
7     Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
:
8     Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburn'd brain.
:     Metaphor for the artists block (sun'burned brain)
9     But words came halting forth, wanting invention's stay;
:     Personification(words came haulting forth, Hysteron Proteron
(wanting inventions stay)
10   Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows;
:    Auxesis & Asyndeton (all of line # 10)all three things are
grouped together, yet they are listed in climaxical order
11   And others' feet still seem'd but strangers in my way.
:
12   Thus great with child to speak and helpless in my throes,
:    Metahor (great with child)he is ready to give birth to words
13   Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite,
:    Climax (all of line #13), epithet(traunt pen)
14   "Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write."
:    Dehoratio (Fool, look in thy heart and write)

Homoioiteleuton in the O sounds at the end of every other line.
Note: Maybe the Sonnet is about the male aspiration to give
birth.  The artist truly wants to write and create but is
limited by his studies.  He cannot give birth to an actual baby
so he desperately aspires to create something (give birth to) an
idea, poem, sonnet, etc.  The role of the artist in this poem is
the same as an expecant mother, big with child (ideas).
ASHLEY WEXLER

from Sir Philip Sydney's sonnet sequence ASTROPHEL & STELLA
(aka Astrophil & Stella)
:
Sonnet 20

:
1     Fly, fly, my friends, I have my death wound, fly!
2     See there that boy, that murd'ring boy, I say,
3     Who, like a thief, hid in dark bush doth lie
4     Till bloody bullet get him wrongful prey.
5     So tyrant he no fitter place could spy,
6     Nor so fair level in so secret stay,
7     As that sweet black which veils the heav'nly eye;
8     There himself with his shot he close doth lay.
9     Poor passenger, pass now thereby I did,
10   And stay'd, pleas'd with the prospect of the place,
11   While that black hue from me the bad guest hid;
12   But straight I saw motions of lightning grace
13   And then descried the glist'ring of his dart:
14   But ere I could fly thence it pierc'd my heart.

TIM WITHEROW

Sonnet Rhetorical Deconstruction:
Sonnet 39:
I am going to break up this sonnet in three large chunks so that they can be discussed in relation to one another.  The first section will be lines 1-4, the second 5-8, and the final 9-12.
Section one (ln 1-4):
Personification of Sleep.
Epizeuxis in the address to Sleep.
Isocolon through the entire section after the address and ending in a climax in line 4.
The clauses in the Isocolon are also an example of Parataxis and begin with Anaphora.
These clauses also utilize Antithesis and Ellipsis.
Could be Bdelygmia if the traits of sleep are to be taken as a negative.
Section two (ln 5-8):
Personification of Despair.
Metaphor of shield, despair, and civil wars.
Allusion of the "tribute" to the crossing of the river Styxx and death.
Anaphora in lines 6 and 7 that also display Isocolon.
This is also Parallelism with the Anaphora and Isocolon from section one.
Section three (9-12):
Metaphor in lines 9 and 10 of a coffin
Continued personification of Sleep
Hysteron Proteron in line 12.
This section creates a Chiasmus in the former sections.  The qualities of sleep from the first section are really qualities that Stella provides for the speaker and not what Sleep provides.
Death, or Sleep, does not have these qualities but could deliver them in Stella's image; which he can see only if he dies.
JUSTIN WEILACHER

from Sidney's ASTROPHIL & STELLA
:
Sonnet 44
:
My words I know do well set forth my minde;:
My mind bemones his sense of inward smart;
Such smart may pitie claim of any hart;
Her heart, sweet heart, is of no tygres kind:
And yet she heares and yet no pitie I find,
But more I cry, less grace she doth impart.
Alas, what cause is there so overthwart
That Nobleness it selfe makes thus unkind?
I much do guesse, yet finde no truth save this,
That when the breath of my complaints doth touch
Those dainty doors unto the Court of Blisse,
The heav'nly nature of that place is such,
That, once come there, the sobs of mine annoyes
Are metamorphosed straight to tunes of joyes.

IDENTIFICATIONS:
As in so many Renaissance love poems, the lover complains and the
mistress ignores him (octave); in the sestet, the lover comforts
himself with the illusion that his tears and complaints are
somehow magically transformed into "tunes of joyes" when they
reach his mistress's ears.

lines 1-4: The figure of GRADATIO ("words" to "minde," "mind"
to "smart," smart" to "hart," and "hart" to "heart") conveys a
sense of logical progression as the speaker works toward a
(frustrating) CLIMAX.

line 2: PERSONIFICATION of "mind"

lines 3-4: PLOCE in repetition of "h(e)art"

lines 5-6: ANTITHESIS in each of these lines accentuates the
speaker's sense of frustration and heightens the sense of
opposition (developed in what is really one long sentence from
line one through line six).  

lines 7-8: This question might be perceived as a form of
EPIPLEXIS (and an appeal to PATHOS), as the speaker puzzles over
the perverse cause of his mistress's unkindness.  As it happens,
though, what at first might be perceived as a RHETORICAL QUESTION
is in fact answered (in a fanciful way) in the sestet of the
sonnet.

line 9:  The transition into the sestet is marked by a kind of
APORIA ("I much do guess") before introducing the fanciful
conclusion.

lines 10-14: The explanation itself might be broadly classified
as a form of CATACHRESIS--an absurd metaphorical explanation that
serves to rationalize the frustrated condition of the unrequited
lover.

line 11: The METAPHORICAL PERIPHRASIS for "ears"/"head" shifts
the tone of the sonnet from complaint to admiration.

lines 13-14: The ANTITHESIS (underscored by RHYME) of "sobs . . .
annoyes" to "tunes of joyes" in the closing couplet mimics the
movement of the whole sonnet from the negative to the positive--
and from self-pity to self-delusion.  
[Nordquist]

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