Sir Philip Sidney
“An Apology
for
POETRY”
• Hanaa Mansour
Mansour.
• Literary appreciation course.
• Dr. Ayman Al hallaq.
• Class:202
• 220111759
The outline:
• Brief notes about Sir Philip Sidney .
• “The School of Abuse” by Stephan
Gosson.
• “The Defense of poesy”
• The DEFINITION of poetry and its
FUNCTION .
Sir Philip Sidney
• (30 November 1554 – 17 October
1586)
•He was an English poet,
courtier and soldier, and
is one of the most
prominent figures of the
Elizabethan age.
•His major works:
“Astrophel and Stella”
“The defense of poesy”
“The lady of May”
The school of abuse :
Stephan Gosson has some charges on
poetry:
•
•
•
•
Poetry is useless and a waste of time
Poetry is the mother of lies
Poetry is a nurse of abuse
There was a tradition that PLATO had
banished poets from “the Republic”
1- poetry is a waste of time:
“ Poetry has been the first light
giver to ignorance”
• Poetry has been man’s first source of
inspiration
• Poetry is the teacher of all sciences,
scientific books were written in rhyme.
• Poetry can be found among all
civilizations
1- poetry is a waste of time:
 The Roman word for “the poet”
means “prophet”, and the Greek
word is “creator” or “maker”.
The Greek and Roman philosophers,
scientists, and historians were poets
(including PLATO ) and they wrote
their books in rhyme.
1- poetry is a waste of time:
“if it be as I affirm that no
learning is so good as which
teaches and moves to virtue.
And that none can both
teach and move so much as
poetry”
Poetry is superior to philosophy and
history because:
1- poetry is a waste of time:
• Philosophy teaches virtue through
abstract examples.
• History teaches virtue through real
examples from facts and records.
• Poetry is the link between the IDEAL and
the REAL (precept & examples)
• “the poet is the right popular philosopher”
• The poet uses the facts of history to make
them more noble by adding his own
imagination.
2-Poetry is the mother of lies:
• Sidney answers that the poet does
not lie because he never affirms that
his fiction is true .
• The poetic truths are ideal and
universal .
• He also said that the falsehood arises
only where a period tells of facts, past
or present and the poet has no
concern with that
3-Poetry is a nurse of abuse:
• To Sidney, it is people who abuses poetry.
• . 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.
• All arts and sciences put evil effects, if they
are misused
4- PLATO had banished poets
from “the Republic”
• Sidney views that Plato wanted to
banish the abuse of poetry not the
poets.
• Plato never says that all poets should
be banished. He called for banishing
only those poets who are inferior kind
of poetry of his age and they misuse
poetry .
The Definition of poetry:
"Poetry is an art of imitation,
for so Aristotle terms it in the
word mimesis--that is to say a
representing, counterfeiting,
or figuring forth to speak
metaphorically, a speaking
picture with this end, to
teach and delight."
The Definition of
poetry
He classified poetry into 3
kinds:
• Religious poetry
• Philosophical poetry
• Imitative poetry
BUT he gave importance to
Conclusion
THANKS
ALOT