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A Defence of Poesie and Poems

by Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

  • Free to read
  • 2 hours to read
  • 16 chapters
  • Reading level: 8th & 9th grade

"A Defence of Poesie and Poems" by Philip Sidney is a work of literary criticism written around 1580 and published in 1595. Sidney argues that poetry surpasses both history and philosophy in inspiring readers toward virtue by combining historical liveliness with ethical purpose. Responding to attacks on poetry, including Stephen Gosson's critique of the English stage, Sidney defends poetry's noble place in society through its power to teach and delight. This groundbreaking essay became England's first philosophical defense of imaginative literature during the Renaissance.

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  • Poetry · Early works to 1800

Read the opening

Chapter I

WHO hath e’er felt the change of love,
And known those pangs that losers prove,
May paint my face without seeing me,
And write the state how my fancies be,
The loathsome buds grown on Sorrow’s tree.

But who by hearsay speaks, and hath not fully felt
What kind of fires they be in which those spirits melt,
Shall guess, and fail, what doth displease,
Feeling my pulse, miss my disease.

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Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Chapter I
  3. Chapter II
  4. Chapter III
  5. Chapter II
  6. Chapter I
  7. Chapter II
  8. Chapter III
  9. Chapter IV
  10. Chapter I
  11. Chapter II
  12. Chapter III
  13. Chapter IV
  14. Chapter V
  15. Chapter VI
  16. Chapter VII

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About this edition

This free edition of A Defence of Poesie and Poems by Philip Sidney comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #1962, released 1999-11-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Essays, Letters & Speeches, British Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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