Sir Philip Sidney’s

Apology
for
Poetry
• Pugliano’s Horsemanship : Beauty &
Faith
• Poets : Pioneers & Source of
Knowledge
• Poets : first Philosophers; the
Visionaries
• Even philosophers wrote in verses :
poetry
• Poets : first Historiographers; : the Past
• Historiographers, too, wrote in verses
• Poetry respected even by primitive
tribes
• Roman Poets : reverenced as‘Vates’
• Arma amens capio nec sat rationis in armis : Distracted do I
take up arms; but there is little reason in arms ( Aeneid )
• Holy David’s Psalms : Poetry by the exalted Hebrew poet
• Prosopopoeia : Greek word for Personification
• The Greek view of the poet as ‘Maker’ : ‘Poiein’ (to make)
• Other arts : below Nature ; Poetry transcends Nature
• Poet the idealist of Nature : importance of ‘Idea’ or thought
• Poet’s creativity : highest human faculty : second creator
• Poetry : Art of Imitation / Representation ‘Mimesis’
 Three kinds of Poetry
• 1. Religious Poetry :
 David’s Psalms
 Solomon’s Songs, Ecclesiastes & Proverbs
 Moses & Deborah in their Hymns
 Writer of the Book of Job (Old Testament)

• 2. Philosophical Poetry :
 Moral : Tyrtaeus, Phocylides, Cato
 Natural : Lucretius, Virgil
 Historical : Lucan

• 3. Strictly Pure Poetry : aimed to Teach &

Delight
 Poetry : End to Teach & Delight
• A painter doesn’t paint the face as it is; rather, he paints
the essence of the inner emotion
• Not what is or shall be; but what may, and should be
• Subdivisions of Poetry :
• HEROIC, LYRIC, TRAGIC, COMIC, SATIRIC, ELEGIAC,
PASTORAL
• Not Rhyming and Versing that maketh a poet
• Verse : an ornament and no cause to poetry
• Metre / Versification : not essential to poetry
• Poetry : Delightful Teaching – Essence, not the form
• Form-Content / Vehicle-Tenor : prioritizing essence
• Perfection of soul – best promoted by Poetry
• “Purifying of Wit, Enriching of Memory, Enabling of
Judgment, and Enlarging of Conceit Knowledge
• Learning leads our degenerate souls to Perfection
• Astronomy/Music/Mathematics lift up the Mind
• Architektonike : Chief Knowledge/Chief Builder
• Man-knowledge : highest kind : Proper study of Man
• ‘Ethic & Politic consideration’: not only ‘Well-knowing’,
the end of knowledge is ‘Well-doing’
• Moral philosophy : principal branch of Learning
• Social responsibility : not mere description, but
uplifting the Moral & Ethical status of the society
• Philosophy approaches through precepts
• Philosophy founded on generalisation
• Philosophy proceeds through dry arguments
• Philosophy banks on Abstraction and Generalisation

• History approaches through examples

• History founded on particulars
• History proceeds through dry facts
• History banks on ‘What is’, not ‘What should be’
• Poetry superior to Philosophy
• Poetry gives a perfect picture or image
• Philosophy : a wordish description
• Poetry gives an image : strikes the mind
• Philosophy : Poetry Description : Picturisation
• Moral examples in poetry :
• Ulysses : Temperance and Wisdom
• Ajax : Anger ‘Short Madness’ : Stoics; Horace
• Achilles : Valour and leadership
• Nisus and Euryalus : Friendship
• Feigned image of Poesy > regular instructions of
philosophy
• “Mediocribus ...” : Horace, Ars Poetica : neither
men nor gods nor booksellers condone mediocrity
in poets
• Christ’s parables : instructions appealing to both
memory and judgment : poetic picturisation
• Philosopher teaches obscurely; only for the
learned
• Poet the right popular philosopher : fit for all
• Poetry : more philosophical; studiously serious
• Aristotle : poetry :
• Philosophoteron : more philosophical
• Spoudaioteron : more studiously serious
• Poetry deals with Katholou : Universal consideration
• History deals with Kathekaston : the Particular
• Hence, Poetry is superior to History
• No fixed pattern in History; poetry suggestive pattern
• Fiction as forceful as Truth
• History : authority of facts; Poetry : authority of pen
• Poetic Justice : more conducive to virtue than History
• Poetry : moving higher than Philosophy or History
• Poetry : makes us forget that we are being taught
• Poetry : creates the desire to be taught because it
teaches with pleasure
• Poetry : gives a prospect; makes teaching attractive
• Poetical imitation : more delightful
• Poetry has the power to persuade us through parables
• Poetry : supreme as an incentive to Virtue
• Various kinds of Poetry defended :
• Pastoral : Nature, Parables and Fables Moral lessons
• Elegiac : arousing Pity and Compassion
• Iambic : rubs the galled mind with sobriety and grace
• Satiric : criticises our faults/defects Purification
• Comedy : imitates the common errors : Social value
• Comedy : generates shame in our mind to the ‘Comical’
• Tragedy : opens the wounds covered with tissues
• Tragedy : projects the ‘horrible’ and the ‘fearful’
• Tragedy : makes us aware of ‘suffering’ and ‘fall’
• Tragedy : Catharsis Purgation Purification
• Summarisation of the arguments :
1. Earliest source of Knowledge : Fatherly antiquity
2. Universal : revered in all countries, even the barbarous
3. Romans : ‘Vates’/Prophet; Greeks : Maker (fr. ‘Poiein’)
4. Effects of poetry : so good that it cannot touch evil
5. Poetry : teaches with goodness; with pleasure
6. Surpasses both History and Philosophy
7. Ancient history, phil. & religion : taught in poetry
8. Holy Scriptures : Parables & Psalms : poetic & musical
9. Not Rhyme & Metre, but Harmony & Memory
10. Verse : sweet & orderly; melodious : helps memory
• Four Major allegations against Poetry
 Uselessness : better to spend time in other knowledges
 Falsehood : it is the mother of Lies
 Corrupting effect : nurse of Abuse
 Reference to Plato : he argued for the banishment of
the poets from his commonwealth
 Sidney’s Replies
• Poetry : better than any other knowledge
• Poetry : can both teach and move to virtue
• Poet : the least liar; can scarcely be a liar
• Poetry: the truest; does not pretend factual truth
• Poet : affirms nothing, and therefore never lies
• Poet: doesn’t deal with facts; hence, the least liar
• Poet : not concerned with what is/is not
• Poet: concerned with what should/should not be
• Poetry : never abuses man’s wit
• Man’s wit abuses Poetry
• Poetry : Eikastike : creates likenesses
• Poetry : Phantastike : art of making phantasies
• Plato : himself the most poetical
• Ungrateful philosophers copied poets weakly
• Plato : warned against the abuses of poetry
• Plato : not against Poetry; but against bad Poets
 Summary of the Refutation
• Poetry : not an art of Lies; but of true doctrine
• Poetry : not of effeminateness; but of Courage
• Poetry: not abusing, but strengthening Man’s wit
• Poetry : not banished, but honoured by Plato
• Poetry : not responsible; but only bad poets
• Poetry : in a bad state in contemporary England
• Drama : also in a bad state
 Fallen state of Poetry in England
• First cause : lack of spirit in the age
• Second cause : Poets with mercenary motives
• Third cause: poets of the age : not born poets
• Fourth cause : lack of training & practice
• Only few good poets : Chaucer, Surrey, Spenser
• Degraded state of English drama
• Drama somewhat redeemed by Gorboduc
 Some observations by Sidney
• Sidney defends the Three Unities
• Sidney defends the practice of ‘In Medias Res’
• Violation of decorum : Tragedy & Comedy mixed
• Eng. Comedy : Laughter confused with Pleasure
• Comedy : meant for delightful teaching, not
vulgar amusement
• Contemporary Eng. Poetry : tame & artificial
• Contemporary Eng. Poetry : affected eloquence