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 poetryBUT he gave importance to the third type WHY???