ID :13527

MAJOR ASSIGNMENT :
In Apology for poetry sidney respond to five charges.
What are those five charges and how he respond to that
charges.
First of all, Sidney disposes of the objection raised against poetry. He
says, there are persons who deride poetry and mock at poets just to
show their own importance. Such persons are like the clowns and
jesters. However, some critics of poetry are serious in their attack.
Among them are those who attack poetry because it employs metre
and rhyme. To them, Sidney’s reply is that the use of, verse and rhyme
is by no means essential to poetry. Besides, verse and rhyme are
certainly not a demerit of poetry. Indeed, verse and rhyme add to the
charm of poetry, and are thus not to be despised at all. Sidney then
proceeds to refute charges against poetry.

FOUR CHARGES :
There are four serious charges against poetry:
The first objection against poetry, considered by Sidney, is that a man
can better spend his time in acquiring more fruitful knowledges than in
the reading of poetry. The Second charge is that poetry is the mother of
lies. The third charge is that poetry is the nurse of abuse, that it infects
the readers with many vicious desires and that, poetry lures the mind
of the reader to sinful fancies. Poetry, and especially comedy, weakens
the minds of the readers, people are lulled asleep by the entertainment
provided by poetry. The fourth charge against poetry is that Plato had
banished it from his Republic.
Sidney Reply to First Charge :
In connection with the first charge against poetry, Sidney says
that poetry is the noblest kind of learning because it teaches us
virtue and it moves our minds to pursue virtuous action. There is
no other branch of learning which can perform these two functions
more effectively than poetry. Sidney asserts that there is no other
knowledge more fruitful in this world than poetry. Poetry is
supreme in this respect; and there is no other form of learning or
study which can excell it from this point of view.
Second Charge :
As for the second charge, Sidney vehemently denies that poetry
is the mother of lies. Of all the writers in this world, says Sidney,
the poet is the least liar. He says, an astronomer may tell a lie
when he records his measurements of the height of the stars,
because his measurements may prove to be wrong. A
geometrician may lie if his propositions prove to be false. A
physician may prove to be a liar if the medicine kills the patient.
But the poet never tells lies because he affirms nothing. A poet
never affirms anything. A historian in his chronicle of events may
tell many lies because he affirms many things and because there
is no guarantee whatever he has affirmed is absolutely true. But
the poet never employs any trick to convince his readers of the
truth of what he writes. In fact, he is so scrupulous about telling
the truth that before beginning to write a poem, he invokes the
blessings of the Muses. The poet does not describe what is or
what is not; he strives to describe what should be or what should
not be. Even if what he describes is not true, yet he cannot be
called a liar because he does not affirm truth. Nobody can say
that Aesop lied in writing his stories about animals and beasts.
Aesop never claimed that his stories were literally true. His stories
are to be interpreted in an allegorical sense. When we read
history, we expose nothing but the truth; and yet history is found
to contain many falsehoods. When we read poetry, we expect
only fictions; imaginative plot of a story which yields much useful
instruction. And if the poets give names to the imaginary
characters, they still cannot be accused of telling lie. They give
names to their characters, just as the pieces on a chess-board
have such names as the bishop, the king, and the queen. If a poet
gives the name of Cyrus or Aeneas to a character, his only
purpose is to show what a man of fame and fortune might do in
the course of his life.

Third Charge :
Sidney then turns to the third charge against poetry. Poetry is accused
of abusing men’s wit. It is accused of corrupting people and leading
them towards lustful love and sinful actions. Comedy weakens the
minds of the reader because of the abundance of amorous conceits,
which it contains. Lyrical poetry is equally responsible in this respect
because of the passion of love, which it depicts. Even elegiac poetry,
laments the absence of a mistress. To this charge, Sidney replies by
asserting that, even if love of beauty is regarded as a sin and even if the
passion of love is regarded as wicked, poetry in itself is not the cause of
any moral corruption. If, at all, poetry depicts lustful love, it is not the
fault of poetry but the fault of certain poets who have written that kind
of poetry. Sidney’ concludes that it is not poetry, which corrupts men’s
minds but it is the minds of some particular men which corrupt poetry.
Poetry, like painting can infect the minds of the people by depicting
unworthy objects just as it can elevate the minds of men by depicting
noble scenes. Sidney says if a painter depicts Abraham sacrificing his
son Isaac, or Judith killing Holofernes, or David fighting with Goliath, he
will be offering delight to the beholders. If a painter paints ignoble and
immoral scenes, he would displease the beholders. But the misuse of
his art does not mean that the art itself is contemptible.’ Contemptible
is the artist who misuses his art. If poetry is misused, it can do more
harm. But this does not mean that poetry itself is to blame for it. It is
the misuse of poetry that is to blame. Even medicine, which aims at
curing disease, can prove fatal if it is misused. A knowledge of law helps
to secure justice; but even law can foster and increase injustice. Even to
utter the name of God in a wicked context is sinful. A man uttering
God’s name in this way is accused of blasphemy. In short, it has to be
admitted that, while poetry is a powerful instrument for good, it
becomes a powerful instrument for evil when it is misused.

Fourth Charge :
The fourth, charge against poetry seems to Sidney to be the weightiest
because it is supposed to have come from the great philosopher, Plato.
It is generally believed that Plato was a natural enemy of poets. Sidney
says that Plato himself was highly poetical in his writings. In any case,
says Sidney, Plato should not have accused poetry of being immoral as
Plato’s Republic was itself so immoral as to permit promiscuous sexual
relationship. Plato objected to poetry because poetry depicted the gods
as lustful and revengeful and also as suffering from many other vices.
Here the poets themselves were not at fault because the poets had
represented the gods simply in accordance with the prevailing beliefs of
the time.Sidney then says that actually Plato regarded poetry as an
exalted pursuit. He did not banish poetry from his Republic; it was the
abuse or misuse of poetry which he banished. Plato regarded poetry as
the product of divine inspiration. Sidney therefore regards Plato not as
an adversary of poets but as their patron.k
 Poetry is superior to all knowledge :
Sidney regards poetry as the most fruitful form of
knowledge and therefore as the monarch of all branches of
learning. In this way Sidney glorifies poetry and ranks it not
only above philosophy and history but also above the
sciences like astronomy and geometry. He goes to the
extreme when he says: "I still and utterly deny that there is,
sprung out of earth a more fruitful knowledge (than poetry). It is
off the mark to assert that poetry is the profoundest or the most
fertile cause of knowledge. Poetry has its rightful place as an art
which offers delight, pleasure, and moral instruction, which
reveals the mysteries of the human mind and of human nature,
which consoles in distresses and sorrows, which uplifts souls and
transports into another world, and makes lives worth living.
Similarly Sidney goes off the mark when he says that an
astronomer, a geometrician, or a physician may tell lies but that a
poet does not tell lies. We agree that a poet does not tell lies, but
we do not admit that a scientist tells lies either. A scientist,
whether he is an astronomer, a geometrician, or a physician, aims
wholly at truth.
Then there is the question of poetry’s telling lies. “Lies” is,
of course, a very strong word to be used here. But poetry does
abound in fictions; and fictions are not true or factual, though
they may be based on facts. Furthermore Sidney is unjust in
calling astronomers and geometricians liars. What he calls
lies are only hypotheses or assumptions which ultimately lead to
the discovery of truth. It is of course wrong to call a poet a liar; but
it is even more wrong to call a scientist a liar. Similarly, Sidney's
argument that it is not poetry which corrupts men but that it is men
who corrupt poetry. The fact remains that poetry does depict
amorous scenes, scenes of immoral sexual relationships, and so
on. Love poetry, and even prose works contain stories of
seduction, rape, adultery, and incest and they do have a harmful
effect upon young minds. The sensuous descriptions of love
making, even when love is chaste, produce a similar effect with
their references to the beauty and charm of the female face, form,
and figure. Shakespeare's poem, The Rape of Lucrece, despite
all the moral instruction does stimulate sexual desire in a young
reader as do the films. Sidney has somewhat distorted Plato's
views about poetry by depicting him as a patron rather than an
adversary of poets.
Sidney insists on moral value of poetry. Actually, he sums up his
defence in the phrase “delightful teaching”; However, moral
purpose should not become too prominent and should not
supersede the artistic or aesthetic purpose. While Sidney insists
more upon the moral purpose of poetry, though he certainly does
not ignore the delight which poetry provides. Sidney does take
notice of all these aspects of poetry including direction, metaphor,
and metre; but he over-emphasizes the moral aspect.