An Apology for Poetry

by

Philip Sidney

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Sir Philip Sidney Character Analysis

Sir Philip Sidney is the author of “An Apology for Poetry,” as well as its narrator, but the narrator is not necessarily the same as the author. Sidney’s persona in “An Apology for Poetry” is largely similar to his historical persona: the refined, horse-riding aristocrat (the name Philip means “lover of horses” in Greek) who is well-educated but not pedantic, and who shows all of the virtues of Baldassare Castiglione’s courtier, including that indefinable sprezzatura, or nonchalance, that was the ultimate mark of aristocratic sensibility. While Sidney was indeed renowned for his manners, he chose to adopt and perhaps even embellish this persona in “An Apology for Poetry.” It is a rhetorical ethos, or character, designed to persuade the reader by winning his or her trust. True to aristocratic form, Sidney writes in a passionate but not a scholarly manner, and insists throughout that he is an amateur, a man of leisure: he merely “slipped into the title of a poet.” In a gentlemanly fashion, he takes up the task of defending poetry only because he has been so badly “provoked” by critics, which gives his “An Apology for Poetry” an air of authenticity: he speaks not simply as an orator who seeks to impress, but as a man who has been wronged. Sidney repeatedly refers to his “An Apology for Poetry” as a trifle, an “ink-wasting toy,” and begs in the indulgence of the reader, despite the fact that he is clearly a master of rhetoric.

Sir Philip Sidney Quotes in An Apology for Poetry

The An Apology for Poetry quotes below are all either spoken by Sir Philip Sidney or refer to Sir Philip Sidney. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Poetry vs. History and Philosophy Theme Icon
).
An Apology for Poetry Quotes

Only the poet [...] up with the vigour of his own invention, doth grow, in effect, into another nature; in making things either better than nature bringeth forth, or quite anew; forms such as never were in nature, as the heroes, demi-gods, Cyclops, chimeras, furies, and such like; so he goeth hand in hand with Nature, not enclosed within the narrow warrant of her gifts, but freely ranging within the zodiac of his own wit.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as divers poets have done; neither with so pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet-smelling flowers, not whatsoever else may make the too-much-loved earth more lovely; her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Related Symbols: The Speaking Picture
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:

Every understanding knoweth the skill of each artificer standeth in that idea, or fore-conceit of the work, and not in the work itself.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:

Poesy, therefore, is an art of imitation; for so Aristotle termeth 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.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Related Symbols: The Speaking Picture
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:

The purifying of wit, this enriching of memory, enabling of judgment, and enlarging of conceit, which commonly we call learning under what name soever it come forth, or to what immediate end soever it be directed; the final end is to lead and draw us to as high a perfection as our degenerate souls, made worse by their clay lodgings, can be capable of.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:

Whatsoever the philosopher saith should be done, [the poet] giveth a perfect picture of it, by some one by whom he pre-supposeth it was done, so as he coupleth the general notion with the particular example. A perfect picture, I say; for he yieldeth to the powers of the mind an image of that whereof the philosopher bestoweth but a wordish description, which doth neither strike, pierce, nor possess the sight of the soul, so much as that other doth.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Related Symbols: The Speaking Picture
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:

The poet is, indeed, the right popular philosopher.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:

Moving [...] is well nigh both the cause and effect of teaching; for who will be taught, if he be not moved with desire to be taught? And what so much good doth that teaching bring forth (I speak still of moral doctrine) as that it moveth one to do that which it doth teach.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Related Symbols: The Speaking Picture
Page Number: 37
Explanation and Analysis:

Now [...] of all sciences [...] is our poet the monarch. For he doth not only show the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect into the way, as will entice any man to enter into it; nay, he doth, as if your journey should lie through a fair vineyard, at the very first give you a cluster of grapes, that full of that taste you may long to pass farther.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Related Symbols: The Speaking Picture
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:

Of all writers under the sun, the poet is the least liar; and though he would, as a poet, can scarcely be a liar [...] For the poet, he nothing affirmeth, and therefore never lieth.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:

Shall the abuse of a thing make the right use odious? [...] With a sword thou mayest kill thy father, and with a sword thou mayest defend thy prince and country; so that, as in their calling poets fathers of lies, they said nothing, so in this their argument of abuse they prove the commendation.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:

But if (fie of such a but!) you be born so near the dull-making cataract of Nilus, that you cannot hear the planet-like music of poetry; if you have so earth-creeping a mind, that it cannot lift itself up to look at the sky of poetry....thus much curse I must send you in the behalf of all poets; that while you live, you live in love, and never get favour, for lacking skill of a sonnet; and when you die, your memory die from the earth for want of an epitaph.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
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An Apology for Poetry PDF

Sir Philip Sidney Quotes in An Apology for Poetry

The An Apology for Poetry quotes below are all either spoken by Sir Philip Sidney or refer to Sir Philip Sidney. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Poetry vs. History and Philosophy Theme Icon
).
An Apology for Poetry Quotes

Only the poet [...] up with the vigour of his own invention, doth grow, in effect, into another nature; in making things either better than nature bringeth forth, or quite anew; forms such as never were in nature, as the heroes, demi-gods, Cyclops, chimeras, furies, and such like; so he goeth hand in hand with Nature, not enclosed within the narrow warrant of her gifts, but freely ranging within the zodiac of his own wit.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as divers poets have done; neither with so pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet-smelling flowers, not whatsoever else may make the too-much-loved earth more lovely; her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Related Symbols: The Speaking Picture
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:

Every understanding knoweth the skill of each artificer standeth in that idea, or fore-conceit of the work, and not in the work itself.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:

Poesy, therefore, is an art of imitation; for so Aristotle termeth 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.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Related Symbols: The Speaking Picture
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:

The purifying of wit, this enriching of memory, enabling of judgment, and enlarging of conceit, which commonly we call learning under what name soever it come forth, or to what immediate end soever it be directed; the final end is to lead and draw us to as high a perfection as our degenerate souls, made worse by their clay lodgings, can be capable of.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:

Whatsoever the philosopher saith should be done, [the poet] giveth a perfect picture of it, by some one by whom he pre-supposeth it was done, so as he coupleth the general notion with the particular example. A perfect picture, I say; for he yieldeth to the powers of the mind an image of that whereof the philosopher bestoweth but a wordish description, which doth neither strike, pierce, nor possess the sight of the soul, so much as that other doth.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Related Symbols: The Speaking Picture
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:

The poet is, indeed, the right popular philosopher.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:

Moving [...] is well nigh both the cause and effect of teaching; for who will be taught, if he be not moved with desire to be taught? And what so much good doth that teaching bring forth (I speak still of moral doctrine) as that it moveth one to do that which it doth teach.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Related Symbols: The Speaking Picture
Page Number: 37
Explanation and Analysis:

Now [...] of all sciences [...] is our poet the monarch. For he doth not only show the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect into the way, as will entice any man to enter into it; nay, he doth, as if your journey should lie through a fair vineyard, at the very first give you a cluster of grapes, that full of that taste you may long to pass farther.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Related Symbols: The Speaking Picture
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:

Of all writers under the sun, the poet is the least liar; and though he would, as a poet, can scarcely be a liar [...] For the poet, he nothing affirmeth, and therefore never lieth.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:

Shall the abuse of a thing make the right use odious? [...] With a sword thou mayest kill thy father, and with a sword thou mayest defend thy prince and country; so that, as in their calling poets fathers of lies, they said nothing, so in this their argument of abuse they prove the commendation.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:

But if (fie of such a but!) you be born so near the dull-making cataract of Nilus, that you cannot hear the planet-like music of poetry; if you have so earth-creeping a mind, that it cannot lift itself up to look at the sky of poetry....thus much curse I must send you in the behalf of all poets; that while you live, you live in love, and never get favour, for lacking skill of a sonnet; and when you die, your memory die from the earth for want of an epitaph.

Related Characters: Sir Philip Sidney (speaker), The Poet
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis: