Name.

:_ Qaiser Nadeem, Akbar Utra

Class instructor. :_ Ma’am Noor Fatima
Program. :_ MAEL 2nd
Assignment :_ An apology for poetry

Discussion on apology for Poetry

In Elizabethan age, a puritan dramatist named Stephan Gosson wrote a
work having titled as school of abuse, in which hr criticized upon poetry and
poets and blamed them for the wrong doings of society. At that very time a
very famous writer came up against him defending poetry and his name
was Sir Philips Sidney. He wrote a work naming an apology for poetry and
came up with several logics and arguments and tried to prove Gosson
wrong.In this apology ,Sidney tries to define poetry (what is poetry and who
is the poet).
1. He says the poetry is the teacher of all sciences. All the learning of
the West in the Renaissance went back to the Greek civilization where
even philosophical and scientific books were written in rhyme. So, poetry is
the source of all knowledge.
2. Poetry can be found among all civilization. There is no civilization that
does not know poetry in a form or another.
3. The Romans use the same word for both the "poet" and the
"prophet". The word used for the poet in Latin means "Prophet". which
shows his importance. Moreover, the Greek word for the poet means
"Creator". This shows that poetry is not something trivial; it is very
importance.
 Besides, the Roman and Greek philosophers and scientists wrote in
rhyme.
Then, Sidney talks about the definition of poetry with reference to Aristotle
who says that poetry "is the mimetic, or imitative, use of language". The
reference to Aristotle shows that this man was still influential. 

An important aim of this course is to try to trace the development of

criticism. One important point is what the similarities are between Aristotle
and Sidney. The first similarity is their definition.
Poetry, according  to Sidney, is "a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring
forth - to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture - with this end, to teach
and delight."
Sidney gives several words for the same concept. He has this habit of
giving many synonyms for the same word as a kind of explaining. 
 "This end" means the aim, goal or purpose.
 "Teach and delight" are two important words. Both of these concepts
counterbalance each other. According to Sidney, a good literary work
should have a message and should also delight. A work may teach but not
delight, so this is not poetry. Likewise, if a poem delights, but does not
teach, it will not be a real poem.
After that, Sidney moves from defining poetry to dividing it into many parts
and categories. In the rest of the section, Sidney simply says that,
according to him, there are three kinds of poetry;

1. The first kind is religious. That is, the Old Testament and the New
Testament are poetry. Also, the psalms of David are very poetic in nature.
2. The second is philosophical. It is not literature, but is written in a
literary form to make it easier to memorize. This is not what Sidney looks
for. Any kind of knowledge can be written in verse, but this does not make it
poetry. Poetry is meant to teach and to delight, but religious and
philosophical poetry does not delight.
3. The third is imitative poetry or true and creative poetry.
Sidney means to define and classify. He wants to be very clear about what
he is going to discuss to avoid confusion. 
The second step in the essay is marking the territory (this is something to
do before starting an argument). When we deal with a text. we should look
at the ideas and the form (or the logical development). There is a very
strong argument here. The way he writes in is very organized and well-
planned. Sidney does not write randomly. The essay is very well studied
and written.

After dividing poetry into "religious, philosophical, and imitative poetry",

Sidney divides creative poetry into sub-divisions.Sidney divides poetry into
several kinds. The difference between tragic and comic poetry is in content
while the difference between lyric and iambic poetry is in form. Sidney
wants to say that not all poets who write in verse are poets. One can writes
a text that does not rhyme, but it is still poetical. That is, not all verse is
poetry, and not all poetry is verse.
Sidney is not a light writer. He is an All Rounder Man who studies the
classical in their languages. He highlights an idea in the passage and then
elaborates it more. He gives a definition in a paragraph and then gives
more examples for it in the following paragraphs. Then, he gives another
idea with more examples until he becomes sure that the reader
understands him well. Sidney tries to establish the importance and
excellence of poetry. Although the essay is very long, Sidney never loses
the main purpose. He uses many tactics to defend poetry because he
wants to make sure that the reader understands his point.