An Apology for Poetry (1580) – Sidney Summary

Sidney wrote An Apology for Poetry as a response to the criticism of Stephen Gosson who wrote the book School of Abuse (1579)  in which he attacked poetry on many charges. Gosson had directly addressed the book to Sidney. However Sidney did not even mention Gosson’s name in his book. The four attacks against poetry by Gosson were:

1.       A man could employ his time more usefully than in poetry

2.       Poetry is the mother of lies.

3.       Poetry is the nurse of abuse.

4.       Plato has rightly banished poets from his ideal commonwealth.

Sidney’s Apology is not just a response to the attacks of Gosson alone but against all those who did the same since Plato’s time. Sidney opines that poetry is the oldest of all branches and its milk enabled to feed afterwards tougher knowledge and that it is superior to philosophy by its charm, to history by its universality, to science by its moral end and to law by its encouragement of the human rather the civic goodness. He then notes the advantages of different genres of poetry like lyric, epic, tragedy, comedy and satire.

                About the first charge against poetry he says that a man can spend time in poetry than in anything because poetry teaches virtues. About the second he says that the question of false and true does not come in poetry since it is not dealing with facts. A poet uses them in order to arrive at a better truth. About the third he says that it is not the poetry that misuses man’s wit but it is man who misuses the wit in poetry by making wrong conclusions. About the fourth he says that Plato did not despise Poetry but poets of his time who could not use poetry in a good manner. Plato should be considered as a patron of poetry not as an adversary of poetry.

                                Sidney’s classicism deserves special mention. He wanted the poetry of England to be what the poetry of Greece to ancient Greece and Rome. So he advocated classical rules in poetry. However it is interesting to note that one of his favorite poems Chevy Chase is bereft of classical standards. Thus poet for him is a heavenly maker than a mere prophet. Sidney’s arguments have their bases on Horace, Plato, Aristotle and the like masters. Sidney considered poetry as an art of imitation and its aim is to teach following the footsteps of Aristotle whom he respects more than any other philosopher. Following the line of Aristotle’s Sidney also advocated for the observation of unities. The unities of time, place and action were favored by Sidney. He also believed that this is a necessary thing to be followed in dramas. In the play Gorboduc he identifies that the unities are not maintained and therefore he considers the drama as faulty according to the standards set by Aristotle. Not only that but he also had denounced tragi-comedy plays which were gaining popularity during his time as unfit for the stage. He called such plays as ‘these gross absurdities’. In tragi comedy he had the opinion that it mingled unsuitable elements and characters together like the clown and the king. We wonder whether Sidney would reconsider had he lived a bit more in the Elizabethan era. Because the era produced some of the best works of Marlowe and Shakespeare.

                In poetic stylistics he favored the use of unrhymed metre though he favored rhymed metre which in his opinion is not a cause (metre is not a cause) but an ornament to poetry. Poetry in his opinion is a way of inventing new things that this world cannot offer, even prose that offers this job is considered by him as poetry. He also maintains an opinion that verse is a superior form than prose.

                Sidney’s stand on poetry differs from Aristotle in a way that poetry is not just an imitation but it is an imitation for a specific purpose: it imitates to teach and delight.  In his opinion poetry is not just an art of imitation for the purpose of teaching but also is an art of invention or creation (in other words not just imitation but improvement). Sidney made poetry what Plato wished it to be-a vision of the idea itself than its copy and a force for the perfection of the soul. The Apology is therefore not only a reply to Gosson but also unwittingly to Plato.