{"id":347,"date":"2019-04-24T09:15:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T09:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engp01.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&p=347"},"modified":"2019-05-20T05:00:21","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T05:00:21","slug":"an-apology-for-poetry","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp01\/chapter\/an-apology-for-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"An Apology For Poetry"},"content":{"raw":"
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1.0 OBJECTIVE:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Our study material will tell us briefly about the life of Sir Phillip Sidney, one of the major poets of the sixteenth century and in more detail about his chief work An Apology For Poetry<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

1.1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

\"\"Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1595) was a courtier, soldier, statesman, scholar and a distinguished poet of the sixteenth century. He lived during the Elizabethan age, so was a contemporary of Shakespeare. We should recall that what we call the Elizabethan Age is really the English Renaissance. It begins in Italy and makes it to England during the age of Elizabeth. In the essay he both explores the core concepts and answers to earlier criticism of poetry. We shall first discuss how he praises poetry for being the cradle of civilization, for being a channel of divine power, for teaching as well as delighting, and for combining and surpassing the virtues of history and philosophy. We shall then move on to show how he refutes the main arguments made against poetry.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

In order to have a total understanding of the text, we need to travel back in time.\u00a0 It is not just today that people have wondered if poetry is worthwhile. It has always had its critics. Like all critics before\u00a0<\/span>him, Sidney knew that he would have to answer not only contemporary attacks but he always had to answer Plato. Plato was always in the background, and was the raison d'etre. During Sidney\u201fs time there was no standard model of English literary criticism. Sidney\u201fs predecessors in the field of literary criticism suffered from a myopic vision. Critics like Wilson, Ascham or Elyot cannot be regarded as full-fledged critics. Their myopic vision confined them to the discussion of the formal aspects of literature only. Sidney could see much more clearly than his contemporaries. He is the first critic of English literature and real criticism began in England with Sir Philip Sidney. In this sense he is an innovator, who broke away from the early critical tradition and created his own.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Chaucer had the critical spirit in him but it did not find the proper trajectory. In 1473, Richard de Bury (1281-1345) published the original Latin version of the Philobiblon.<\/em> It is a weak attempt as it suffers from a narrow outlook. William Caxton ( c. 1422-91), the first literary icon of fifteenth century England showed some critical significance in his prefaces to the books he choose for printing. His critical observations are regarded as the first impressionistic \u201eappreciations\u201f in the history of English literary criticism. Sir Thomas Elyot\u201fs ( c. 1490-1546) The Book Named the Governor <\/em>( 1531) lacks the deep critical insight. Roger Ascham ( 1515-68) in his Taxophilus<\/em> ( 1545) strongly advocated the use of English, as he was a purist he totally disapproved the introduction of foreign words into the English language. In Schoolmaster<\/em> (1570) he clearly shows his affinity with the misomousoi<\/em> or \u201e poet haters\u201f of the time. Thomas Wilson\u201fs ( c. 1525-81) The Art of Rhetoric<\/em> ( 1553) can be regarded as the first modern treatise on English composition.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Sidney\u201fs An Apology For Poetry<\/em> is a class of its own, altogether different from these critics. It was first published posthumously in 1595 in two separate yet more or less identical editions by two printers. The one which was brought out by William Ponosby was called The Defence of Poesie<\/em>. An<\/em> Apologie for Poetrie <\/em>is the title of the work brought out by Henry Olney. Sidney was greatly influenced by the Italian renaissance writers. We are to remember that before the Renaissance the critical vision was shrouded in darkness. Sidney took a bold step to emerge from this medieval darkness into light. He wrote the first treatise on literary theory using humanist concepts. One thing that we should remember about Sidney's Apology<\/em>; is that even though it is a brilliant work, it is\u00a0<\/span>more synthetic than original. In other words, most of the ideas that he conveys in this defense, have been said before by Aristotle, Horace and others. Yet what Sidney brings to it is an incredible polish. He has selected, adapted from many sources in order to arrive at his own conception of poetry.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

In this unit we are going to learn:<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n