“The Defence of Poesy”
by
Sir Philip Sidney
Gülşah ÇINAR
4030931303
Sir Philip Sidney
Born: Penshurst Place in Kent in 1554
Died: Netherlands in 1586
• courtier, soldier, poet, diplomat
• won admiration at an early age for his courtly
skills and intellectual curiosity
• He advocated support for the Protestant
Netherlands in their military resistance to the rule
of Catholic Spain. When an English force was sent
to the Netherlands in 1585, Sidney was given
command of a garrison, and died from wounds
sustained in a military engagement.
Mother: Lady Mary Dudley Sidney
• Lady-in-waiting to the Queen Elizabeth I
Father: Sir Henry Sidney
Major Works
1578
The Lady of May, (masque for Queen Elizabeth)
1582
Astrophel and Stella (published 1591)
his finest work; sonnet cycle
1590
Arcadia, 1590, revised. 1593 epic prose romance
(also titled The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia)
1583
The Defence of Poesie, (published 1595)
(also titled An Apology for Poetry)
- was the first significant piece of literary criticism in the English
Language.
The Apology for Poetry
.
is an English defense against moralistic or
philosophical attacks on poetry, drama, and
music. One of these attacks, Stephen Gosson’s
School of Abuse (1579), was dedicated to
Sidney.
1579 Puritan Attacks on Poesy: The School of Abuse by Stephen
GOSSON
He is best known for his attack on plays, poetry,
ant other arts in The School of Abuse (1579)
“[W]e who have both sense, reason, wit
and understanding . . .
Let us but shut our eyes to poets,
pipers, and players, pull our feet back
from resort to theaters and turn away
from the beholding of vanity, the
greatest storm of abuse will be
overblown. . .”
Stephan Gosson The School
of Abuse
Gosson’s Pamphlet
– attacks actors, playwrights, and poets
– criticizes the social and moral disorder in
fiction
– labels fiction writing as potentially
immoral
– deems fiction as irresponsible and
unrealistic
– views literature as an immoral,
corrupting influence
Gosson’s Dedication:
"To the right Noble Gentleman,
Master Philip Sidney, Esquire,
Sidney’s Response: The Defense of Poesy
(An Apology for Poetry)
Poesy = literature, poetry and prose
An Apology for Poetry – defense against all the
charges laid against since Plato.
He considers poetry as the oldest of all branches
of learning and establishes its superiority.
An Apology for Poetry is structured as a classical
oration with the standard seven parts:
The poet, poetry (exordium)
Three kinds of poet (proposition)
Poetry, philosophy, history (division)
The poetic kinds (examination)
Answers to charges against poetry (refutation)
Poetry in England (digression)
Conclusion (peroration)
The Prologue
Sidney justifies his own praise of poetry, by
citing the example of John Pietro Pugliano who
praised horses and horsemanship very highly.
There is a just cause to plead a case for poetry
since it has fallen from the highest estimation of
learning to be ‘the laughing stock of children.’
Antiquity and Universality of Poetry
Poetry has been held in high esteem since the
earliest times. It has been ‘the first light-giver to
ignorance.’ Poetry in all nations has preceded other
branches of learning.
The earlier Greek
philosophers and historians were, in fact, poets. It
is poetry which gradually enable man to read and
understand learning of other kinds.
“ This did so notably show itself, that the
philosophers of Greece durst not a long time
appear to the world but under the mask of poets.
So Thales, Empedocles, and Parmenides sang their
natural philosophy in verse;……..; so did Tyrtaeus
in war matters, and Solon in matters of policy”.
Antiquity and Universality of Poetry
Poetry has flourished in all ages and countries.
Even the uncivilized nations Turkey, the
American Indians, love poetry which softens
their hard hearts and sharpens their wits.
The Prophetic Character of Poetry

Both the Greeks and the Romans
honored poets. The Romans called the
poet "Vates" which means a Foreseer or a
Prophet, and in Greek, the word 'Poet'
means' ‘Maker’ or ‘Creator’. The poet is a
'maker', a creator in the real sense of the
term, for while all other arts are tied to
Nature, 'the poet is not a slave to
Nature.’
 This suggests the divine nature of
poetry
“The
lawyer saith what men have determined;
the historian what men have done. The
grammarian speaketh only of the rules of the
speech; the rhetorician and logician,
considering what in nature will soonest
persuade,
thereon
give
artificial
rules…..Only the poet, disdaining to be
tied to any such subjection, lifted up
with the vigour of his own invention,
does grow, in effect, into another nature,
in making things either better than
nature brings forth, or, quite a new,
forms such as never were in nature, as the
heroes, demigods, cyclops, chimeras, furies,
and such like; so as he goes hand in hand with
nature, not enclosed within the narrow
The Prophetic Character of Poetry
- Oracles of Delphus were delivered in
verse.
- The Psalms in The Bible are nothing but
songs. In the Bible there is much that is
imaginative and fictitious, and it is
imagination which is the distinguishing
characteristic of poetry.
- When poets have been honored in this
way, when the Holy David himself is a
poet, it would be wrong to condemn poets
and poetry.
Definition of Poetry:
Poetry is an art of imitation. It is
representing, counterfeiting or figuring forth.
Poetry is “speaking picture”
Its end is to teach and delight.
The Three Kinds of Poetry
The three kinds of poetry, according to Sidney, are
:
1) Religious poetry : praises God “Such were
David in his Psalms; Solomon in his Song of
Songs…,”
2) Philosophical poetry: imparts knowledge of
philosophy, history, astronomy etc. It is also not
to be condemned, for it is “the sweet food of
sweetly uttered knowledge”.
“ …. either moral, as Tyrtaeus, Phocylides,
and Cato; or natural, as Lucretius and Virgil’s
Georgics;…… or historical as Lucan…..”
The Three Kinds of Poetry
“ For these, indeed, do merely make to imitate, and
imitate both to delight and teach, and delight to move
men to take that goodness in hand, which without
delight they would fly as from a stranger; and teach
to make them know that goodness whereunto they are
moved: -which being the noblest scope to which ever
any learning was directed,…”
The Three Kinds of Poetry
This right kind of poetry may be further sub-divided
into heroic, lyric, tragic, comic, satiric, iambic, pastoral,
etc.
(a) Pastoral poetry deal with the lowliest life and thus
arouses sympathy and admiration for simple life, and
hatred for acts of cruelty and tyranny,
(b) Elegiac poetry arouses sympathy for the suffering and the
miserable. It softens the heart,
(c) Satire laughs folly out of court.
(d) Comedy is an imitation of common errors in a ridiculous
fashion, and so is effective in warning men against such
errors.
(e) Tragedy reveals the wickedness of men in high places
and brings home to men the uncertainty of life.
(f) Lyric hymns the praise of men and God and thus
enkindles virtue and courage,
(g) The Epic : He calls epic poetry as, "the belt and the most
Superiority of Poetry to Philosophy and
History
Poetry is superior to all other branches of learning
The end of all learning is virtuous action, and poetry best serves this
end.
 In this respect poetry is superior, both to history and
philosophy. Philosophy presents merely abstract precepts, which
cannot be understood by the young. History deals with concrete
facts or examples of virtue, but from these facts the readers must
themselves derive universal or general truths. But poetry combines
both these advantages. It presents universal truths like philosophy,
but it does them through concrete examples, like History. Its
general truths can be easily understood for they are conveyed
through examples, and its examples are drawn from an ideal world
and so are more vivid and effective. It teaches virtue in a way
intelligible even to the ordinary men.
Superiority of Poetry to Philosophy and
History
Poetry does not merely give us a knowledge of virtue, it
also moves us to virtuous action. This is so because its
truths are conveyed in a delighted manner; it allures men
to virtue .
‘For he doth not only show the way but giveth so sweet a
prospect into the way, as will entice any man to enter
into it.’
 It wins the mind from wickedness to virtue. It alone of all
the arts and sciences leads to virtuous action. Sidney
stresses this transport or moving of poetry, and claims
that it teaches more perfectly than either history or
philosophy.
Sidney's Justification of Verse and Rhyme
It has been said that poetry is mere “rhyming an
versifying". Sidney points out that rhyme is not the 'essence' of
poetry, but it is desirable to it, for
(i) it is a polish to speech,
(ii) Scaliger had defended its use,
(iii) it regulates verbal harmony, and imparts order and proportion
so pleasing to men,
(iv) it adds to words a sensuous and emotional quality of music,
and
(v) it is an aid to memory.
Stephen Gosson ‘s charges
Stephen Gosson makes charges on poetry which
Sidney answers.
The charges are:
1. Poetry is a waste of time.
2. Poetry is mother of lies.
3. It is nurse of abuse.
4. Plato had rightly banished the poets from his
ideal world.
Replies to These Objections
Sidney dismisses the first charge by saying that
he has already established that ‘no learning is so
good as that which reacheth and moveth to
virtue, and that none can both teach and move
thereto so much as poetry.’
Poetry is mother of lies
His answer to the second objection that poets
are liars is that of all writers under the sun the
poet is the least liar. The Astronomer, the
Geometrician, the historian, and others, all
make false statements. But the poet ‘nothing
affirms, and therefore never lieth,’ his aim being
‘to tell not what is or is not, but what should or
should not be.’ So what he presents is not fact
but fiction embodying truth of an ideal kind.
It is nurse of abuse.
The third charge against poetry is that all its
species are infected with love themes and
amorous conceits, which have a demoralising
effect on readers. To this charge Sidney replies
that poetry does not abuse man’s wit, it is
man’s wit that abuseth poetry. Sidney concedes
that in much of modern poetry there was a
"vicious treatment of love" but love itself is not
bad, for it shows an appreciation of Beauty. The
fault lies not with poetry, but with the
contemporary abuse of poetry. The abuse of
poetry should not lead to a condemnation of
poetry itself.
Poetry is a double edged sword: It can be used
badly or well and it is unwise to abandon any
kind of knowledge altogether because of the
possibility of the abuse of it.
Plato had rightly banished the poets from his
ideal world.
In fact, Plato warned men not against poetry but against its
abuse by his contemporary poets who filled the world with
wrong opinions about the gods. So Plato’s objection was
directed against the theological concepts. Moreover, Plato
himself was a born poet, and a large part of his Dialogues is
poetic. In Ion, Plato gives high and rightly divine commendation
to poetry. His description of the poet as ‘a light winged and
sacred thing’ in that dialogue reveals his attitude to poetry. In
fact by attributing unto poetry a very inspiring of a divine force,
Plato was making a claim for poetry which he for his part could
not endorse. Not only Plato but, Sidney tells us, all great men
have honored poetry.
There is a general decline of poetry and
drama in the age. Sidney lists the following
reasons for its decline:
‘Why has England grown so hard a step-mother to Poets?’ asks Sidney.
1) Peaceful years have bred a tame and sluggish generation devoid of the
ardent and generous spirits necessary for poetic creation.
2) Poets are base people and servile wits, worldly and uninspired. Poetry
requires genius, but genius was lacking in the age.
3) There is widespread ignorance of poetic art. Poets had neither knowledge,
nor imitation of sound models, nor constant exercise or practice.
A Brief Review of the State of Poetry in
England from Chaucer to Sidney’s own
Time
Sidney says that few good poems have been
produced in England since Chaucer.
Chaucer did marvellously well in Troilus and
Cresseida. The Mirrour of Magistrates also contains
some beautiful passages.
Earl of Surrey’s Lyrics also deserve praise.
Spenser’s The Shepherds Calender is worth
reading. English lyric poetry is scanty and poor.
Love lyrics and sonnets lack genuine fire and
passion. They make use of artificial diction and
swelling phrases.
4. Faults of contemporary tragedy—Sidney’s
Condemnation.
The state of drama is also degraded. He condemns moden
tragedy for the incongruous mingling of the comic and the tragic
and the gross violation of the unities.
He gives many examples of absurdities which result from the
violation of the three unities: He pours ridicule on contemporary
tragedy. The only tragedy he praises is Gorboduc which has the
elevated style and eloquence proper to tragedy, but it, too,
violates the unities. He commends the example of the Ancients
and advises the dramatists of his age to plunge into the middle
of their stories, and to report much more than they represent.
Again many things should be told which cannot be shown on
the stage.
5. Condemnation of tragi-comedy
There should be no mingling of tragedies and
comedies, English comedy is based on a false
hypothesis. It aims at laughter, not delight. The
proper aim of comedy is to afford delightful
teaching, not mere coarse amusement. Comedy
should not only amuse but morally instruct.
Advantages of the English Language
The English language has some definite
advantages. It is appreciable for its adaptability
to ancient and modern systems of versification.
It admits both the unrhymed quantitative
system of the ancient poetry and the rhyme
peculiar to modern language.
Summary
Poetry is full of virtue-breeding delightfulness.
It is void of no gift that ought to be in the noble
name of learning.
All the charges laid against it are false and
baseless.
The poets were the ancient treasurers of the
Grecian divinity; they were the first bringers of
all civility.
A poet can immortalize people in his verses.
Defense of Poetry: Sidney’s Parting Curse
From The Defense of Poesy:
Perhaps some readers (Gosson and poesy haters)
“cannot hear the planet-like music of poetry.”
If so, then if the reader has
“so earth-creeping a mind that it cannot lift itself
up to look to the sky of poetry” then “I must
send you in the behalf of all poets:—that while
you live in love, and never get favor for lacking
skill of a sonnet; and when you die, your
memory die from the earth for want of an
epitaph.”
In Brief
 It is a defense against moralistic or
philosophical attacks on poetry, drama, and
music. One of these attacks, Stephen Gosson’s
School of Abuse (1579), was dedicated to
Sidney.
His purpose is to defend creative writing,
whether in verse or prose, against the ethical
charges of falsehood and frivolity.
Sidney’s basic argument is that poetry feigns
“notable images of virtues, vices, or what else”
and thus provides “delightful teaching.” In
developing this argument he makes wellinformed and quite sophisticated use of the
ancient writers Plato, Aristotle, and Horace.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING.