An Apology for Poetry : Summary

Summary

[The summary is written point-based so that you can understand it easily]

Sidney Kane defends poetry: Sir Philip Sidney was the first to point out that his duty was to protect poetry. The place of poetry is far above all literature. For this reason, he showed that poetry was the real medium of language learning and knowledge acquisition. Poetry spread the light of knowledge among all uneducated and misguided people and taught them to live with dignity. The ancient literary people wrote their literature in the form of poetry; that is, poetry is the source of all branches of knowledge. All the ancient writers of Greece, Rome, and Italy, such as Homer, Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, were all poets.

Dependence on the poetry of ancient philosophers and historians: Sidney shows that the ancient philosophers appeared in the guise of poets. He mentions the names of several philosophers. Among them, a famous political philosopher, Solon, and another, Plato, were primarily poets whose literary works were written in poetic language. Sidney later revealed the secrets of the historians’ writings. According to Sidney, historians borrowed their writing style from poetry. If philosophers or historians had not used the poetic method, they might never have achieved such popularity.

Sidney then talks about the originality of poetry. He says the primitive writers of Turkey were theologians and poets. He reveals that poets are builders and prophets. He referred to the poets as Vates in Latin, meaning prophet or divine. Poetry is an art of imitation, which teaches and amuses people. So poets are not bound to things and objects known in nature.

Sidney reveals three types of poetry to prove the imitative nature of poetry and the originality of poetry. The first is Divine poetry, such as David’s Psalms, Solomon’s Song of Songs, the Ecclesiastes, the Proverbs, the hymns composed by Moses and Deborah, and the Book of Job. Examples of these divine poems are found in the Bible’s Old Testament. Secondly, he spoke of philosophical and historical poetry; thirdly, he spoke of the truest poetry. True poetry is the most powerful. And someone has divided this poem into several parts. For example:

• The third type of poetry writer are proper imitator

• This aims to teach and delight

• The poets borrow nothing from what is happening or has happened. Rather they represent what may happen or should happen.

In the next part of the essay, Sidney ably defends poetry and describes contemporary poetry and drama depressingly. He exonerated Kavita from all charges and restored her honor in the following ways.

Sir Philip Sidney responded to Stephen Gossan’s complaints and gave the poem a noble place.

• Poetry is a waste of time that is out and out imperfect because it provides pleasure and morality at the same time.
• Poetry is the mother of lies, which cannot be true because the poets never tell the exact truth. The poet’s purpose is to declare the possibility of truth, which means how it may happen or should happen.
• It is a nurse of abuse that is baseless or groundless since poetry raises conscience within human beings. It improves the differentiating power of human beings.

Plato has rightly banished the poets from his ideal state, which is a misunderstanding and surface or superficial allegation. Plato banished the contemporary rouge poets from his ideal state. Plato himself was highly poetical in his writings.

Poetry is a waste of time: Stephen Gossan complains that reading poetry is a waste of time. But in a practical sense, Sir Palistini could not accept this in any way, so he replied to it. He said poetry is the only force of knowledge and civilization that simultaneously entertains and educates people. Poetry teaches people good qualities through which people can make permanent changes in their behavior. He explains the historical importance of poetry through the Greeks and Romans, saying that in Roman civilization, poets were called vates or prophets and Greek poets were called poiein which means to make. They considered the poets to have divine powers blessed by the gods, i.e., as the gods direct the creation of things, so the poets create poetry and express everything beautifully in the poem. Thus Sir Phillips Sidney points out that poetry can never be a waste of time.

Poetry is the mother of lies: In response to Stephen Gossan’s charge, Sir Phillips Sidney says poets can never lie because poets never claim their writings to be true. Through their writings, poets show what can happen and how it will happen. So when the poets do not claim their writing to be true, there is no falsehood here. So this allegation against Kavita is completely false.

Poetry is the nurse of abuse: In response to this accusation, Sidney said that poetry never commits crimes, but people abuse poetry, so the fault is not the fault of human poetry. Sidney gave poetry a place above history and philosophy. He says that history and philosophy narrate the story of past conflicts and bloodshed, whereas poetry speaks to people of peace and morality and enlightens people with the light of wisdom.

Plato had rightly banished the poets from his ideal world: In response to this charge, Sir Philip Sidney said that Plato banished the abuse of poetry from his ideal state, not of poets but of poetry itself. He banished those poets who were of inferior quality and who were incapable of teaching the people.

Finally, Sidney shows that contemporary dramatists used poetic language in their plays and misrepresented poetry. But those who are poets in a real sense have guided people and given happiness to people. So he congratulated everyone for writing poetry.