An Apology for Poetry

An Apology for Poetry (or The Defence of Poesy) is a work of literary criticism by Elizabethan poet Philip Sidney.

In 1858, William Stigant, a Cambridge-educated translator, poet and essayist, writes in his essay "Sir Philip Sidney"[2] that Shelley's "beautifully written Defence of Poetry is a work which "analyses the very inner essence of poetry and the reason of its existence,—its development from, and operation on, the mind of man".

The poet's mediating role between two worlds – transcendent forms and historical actuality – corresponds to the Neoplatonic doctrine of emanation.

A complement to this doctrine is the concept of return or catharsis, which finds a parallel in Sidney's contemplation of virtue, based on man's rational desire.

His central premise, as was that of Socrates in Plato's Republic, is that poetry is an art of imitation, that is, a "representing, counterfeiting, or figuring forth" not unlike a "speaking picture".

Sidney advocates a place for poetry within the framework of an aristocratic state, while showing concern for both literary and national identity.

Sidney responds in Apology to an emerging antipathy to poetry as expressed in Stephen Gosson's The Schoole of Abuse.

In an era of antipathy to poetry and puritanical belief in the corruption engendered by literature, Sidney's defense was a significant contribution to the genre of literary criticism.

It was England's first philosophical defense in which he describes poetry's ancient and indispensable place in society, its mimetic nature, and its ethical function.

As an expression of a cultural attitude descending from Aristotle, Sidney, when stating that the poet "never affirmeth", makes the claim that all statements in literature are hypothetical or pseudo-statements.

Drama, writes Sidney, is “observing neither rules of honest civility nor of skillful poetry” and thus cannot do justice to this genre.

Theatre became a contentious issue in part because of the culmination of a growing contempt for the values of the emergent consumer culture.

In Apology, he shows opposition to the current of his day that pays little attention to unity of place in drama, but more specifically, his concern is with the "manner" that the "matter" is conveyed.

Sidney employs forensic rhetoric as a tool to make the argument that poetry not only conveys a separate reality, but that it has a long and venerable history, and it does not lie.

As part of his strategy against the threat of censorship, Sidney uses the structure of classical oration with its conventional divisions such as exordium and peroratio.

From the opening discourse on horsemanship, Sidney expands on the horse and saddle metaphor throughout his work by the “enlarging of a conceit” (Leitch 333).

What is at stake then is not only the value of poetry in the sense of its utility, but also its place in a world replete with strife, the contingent and the provisional.