Philip Sidney

Introduction to An Apology for Poetry
An Apology for Poetry (or, The Defence of Poesy) is a work of literary criticism by
Elizabethan poet Philip Sidney. It was written in approximately 1580 and first published in
1595, after his death. His Apology for Poetry is a spirited defence of poetry against all the
charges laid by the puritan, Stephen Gosson, a former playwright who dedicated his attack on
the English stage, The School of Abuse, to Sidney in 1579,which he answers.
Poetry, according to Sidney,

Poetry, according to Sidney, is an art of imitation, a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring
forth; to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture, with this end,—to teach and delight. The
object of all arts and sciences is to lift human life to the highest altitudes of perfection; and in
this respect they are all servants of the sovereign, or poetry, whose end is well-doing and not
well-knowing only. Virtuous action is, therefore, the end of learning; and Sidney sets out to
prove that the poet, more than anyone else, fulfils this end.
Charges by Stephen Gosson

Stephen Gosson in his School of Abuse, leveled four charges against poetry.
1. Poetry is the waste of time.
2. Poetry is mother of lies.
3. It is nurse of abuse.
3. Plato had rightly banished the poets from his ideal world.
Reply to four charges
Sidney gallantly defends all these charges in his ‘Apology for Poetry’.
Taking the first charge,
Sidney says that no learning is so good as poetry which teaches and moves to virtue and that
nothing can both teach and amuse so much as poetry does. In essay societies, poetry was the
main source of education. He remembers ancient Greek society that respected poets. The
poets are always to be looked up. So, poetry is not wasted of time.
Second charge
To the second charge, Sidney answers that poet does not lie because he never affirms that his
fiction is true and can never lie. The poetic truths are ideal and universal. Therefore, poetry
cannot be a mother of lies.
Third charge
Sidney rejects that poetry is the source of abuses. To him, it is people who abuses poetry, not
the vice- versa. Abuses are more nursed by philosophy and history than by poetry, by
describing battles, bloodshed, violence etc. On the contrary, poetry helps to maintain morality
and peace by avoiding such violence and bloodsheds. Moreover it brings light to knowledge.
Fourth charge
To the fourth charge,Sidney views that Plato in his Republic wanted to banish the abuse of
poetry not the poets. He himself was not free from poeticality, which we can find in his
dialogues. Plato never says that all poets should be banished. He called for banishing only
those poets who are inferior and unable to instruct the children.
For Sidney, art is the imitation of nature but it is not slavish imitation as Plato views. Rather
it is creative imitation. Nature is dull, incomplete and ugly. It is artists who turn dull nature in
to golden color. He employs his creative faculty, imagination and style of presentation to
decorate the raw materials of nature. For Sidney, art is a speaking picture having
spatiotemporal dimension. For Aristotle human action is more important but for Sidney
nature is important.
Poetry’s Superiority over Philosophy and History
Showing the superiority of poetry to history and philosophy Sidney says that while the
philosophy teaches virtues through abstract examples and history teaches virtues through
concrete examples but both are defective. Poetry teaches virtue by example as well as by
percept (blend of abstract and concrete). The poet creates his own world where he gives only
the inspiring things and thus poetry holds its superior position to that of philosophy and
history.The philosopher, moreover, teaches the learned only; but the poet teaches all.
In the poet's golden world, heroes are ideally presented and evils are corrupt. Didactic effect
of a poem depends up on the poet's power to move. It depends up on the affective quality of
poetry. Among the different forms of poetry like lyric, elegy, satire, comedy etc. epic is the
best form as it portrays heroic deeds and inspires heroic deeds and inspire people to become
courageous and patriotic.
His Classicism
Sidney’s Apology is the first serious attempt to apply the classical rules to English poetry. He
admires the great Italian writers of Renaissance (Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch). All his
pronouncements have their basis either on Plato or Aristotle or Horace. In his definition of
poetry he follows both Aristotle and Horace : ‘to teach and delight’.
Sidney insists on the observance of the unities of time, place and action in English drama. He
has no patience with the newly developed tragi-comedy. (His whole critical outlook in the
unities and the tragi-comedy was affected by the absence of really good English plays till his
time). He also praises the unrhymed classical metre verse. Poetry according to him, is the art
of inventing new things, better than this world has to offer, and even prose that does so is
poetry. Though he has admiration for the classical verse he has his native love of rhyme or
verse. His love of the classics is ultimately reconciled to his love of the native tradition.
The Value of his Criticism
Though Sidney professes to follow Aristotle, his conception of poetry is different from
Aristotle’s. To Aristotle, poetry was an art of imitation. To Sidney, it is an art of imitation for
a specific purpose : it imitates ‘to teach and delight’. (Those who practise it are called makers
and prophets).
Sidney also unconsciously differs with Aristotle in the meaning he gives to imitation. Poetry
is not so much an art of imitation as of invention or creation. (It creates a new world
altogether for the edification and delight of the reader). This brings him again close Plato.
According to him, the poet imitates not the brazen world of Nature but the golden world of
the Idea itself. So, Plato’s chief objection to poetry is here answered in full. Sidney makes
poetry what Plato wished it to be – a vision of the idea itself and a force for the perfection of
the soul.
Conclusion
In this way, Sidney defines all the charges against poetry and stands for the sake of universal
and timeless quality of poetry making us know why the poets are universal genius.In the
Apology, he has boldly faced the traditional objections against poetry,he has claimed for
poetry, a high place in intellectual and social life, by his unique vindication of poetry, he has
restored it to something of its ancient prestige and meaning, and he brought enlightenment
and assurance to his own generation.

Philip Sidney

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Introduction to An Apology for Poetry

Poetry, according to Sidney,

Charges by Stephen Gosson

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