How_does_Sidney_refute_the_charge_that_poetry_effeminates_a-nation?

Sidney's Apologie is a true defence of poetry. The Puritans of his age attacked
poetry on many counts. Gosson wrote his document to show how evil some poetry
was; it was full of abuse. He quoted Plato as his authority and denounced poetry as
something that weakened a nation, prompted lies and corrupted the taste. But
Sidney in his essay showed that poetry should be highly valued. The poets were the
first light-bringers to ignorance. The influence of poetry was a civilising one. The
earliest Greek philosophers and Historians were in reality born poets. "So that truly
neither philosophers nor historiographer could, at the first, have entered into the
gates of popular judgements, if they had not taken a great pass-port of poetry.
Poets from the first have flourished, in all quarters of the world, even among
Barbarians, the Turks and the Red Indians. "Even among the most barbarious and
simple Indians, where no writing is, yet have their poets, who make and sing
songs, both of their ancestors' deeds and praises of their gods. A sufficient
probability that, if ever learning came among them, it must be by having their hard,
dull wits sharpened by the sweet delights of poetry."
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The Romans called the poet 'Vates' which means a seer or a prophet, and in Greek
the word 'Poet' means 'Maker' or 'Creator.' The poet is a 'maker', a creator in the
real sense of the term, for while all other arts are tied to Nature, the poet is not a
slave to Nature. He is truly creative : "Nature never set forth the earth in so rich
tapestry as divers poets have done; neither with pleasant rivers, fruitful trees,
sweet-smelling flowers nor whatsoever else make the too-much-loved earth more
lovely; her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden. " The poet alone can
fashion a perfect lover, a perfect friend, and a perfectly valiant man, even though
they are not found in Nature.
Sidney's method is that of a logician : he examines it in whole and in parts,
considers the points in favour and the points against, and then sets forth his main
thesis that far from being despised it deserves, 'the laurel crown.' It is the oldest of
all branches of learning, 'whose milk by little and little enabled them to feed
afterwards of tougher knowledges', being superior to philosophy by its charm, to
history by its universality, to science by its moral end, to law by its encouragement
of human rather than civic goodness. Among its various species the pastoral
pleases by its helpful comments on contemporary events and life in general, the
elegy by its kindly pity for 'the weakness or mankind and the wretchedness of the
world,' the satire by its pleasant ridicule of folly, the comedy by its ridiculous
imitation of the common errors of life, the tragedy by its moving demonstration of
'the uncertainty of this world, and upon how weak foundations guilded roofs are
builded' the lyric by its sweet praise of all that is praiseworthy, and the epic by its
representation of the loftiest truths in the loftiest manner. Neither in whole nor in
parts, thus, does poetry deserve the abuse hurled on it by its detractors.
Then Sidney turns to the four charges labelled against it by Gosson. Taking the
first that a man might better spend his time than in poetry, he says that 'if it be, as I
affirm, that no learning is so good as that which teacheth and moveth to virtue, and
that none can both teach and move thereto so much as poetry, then is the
conclusion manifest that ink and paper cannot be to a more profitable purpose
employed.' Next, to say that the poet is a liar is to misunderstand his very purpose.
The question of veracity or falsehood arises only where a period tells of facts, past
or present. The poet has no concern whatever with these; he merely uses them to
arrive at a higher truth. As a poet therefore he can scarcely be a liar, howsoever
much he may like to be one. The third charge that 'it abuses men's wit, training it to
wanton sinfulness and lustful love is particularly applied to the comedy and
sometimes also to the lyric, the elegy, and the epic, into all of which the love
element enters. But granting that love of beauty is a beastly fault and one deserving
hateful reproach, will it not be more correct to say that it is not poetry that abuses
man's wit that abuses poetry? For, there can be poetry without sinful love. The
nature of a thing is determined not by its misuse but by its right use. The fourth
charge that associates Plato's great name with the condemnation of poetry is
without foundation also, for Plato found fault not with poetry, which he considered
divinely inspired, but with the poets of his time who abused it to misrepresent the
gods, although even in this misrepresentation they merely gave vent to popular
beliefs. 'So as Plato, banishing the abuse, not the thing, not banishing it, but giving
due honour unto it, shall be our patron and not our adversary.'
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#POINTS_TO_EMEMBER
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1. Sidney's Apologie a true defence of poetry. Sidney defends poetry on the
following grounds :
(a) Poets are the very first removers of ignorance and light- bringers.
(b) Influence of poetry civilizing.
(c) Poetry the oldest branch of knowledgea universal
phenomenon.
(d) Poets are makers and creators in the real sense. The poet alone
can fashion a perfect lover, a perfect friend, and a perfectly
valiant man.
(e) Poetrysuperior to philosophy, history and science. Superior to philosophy by
its charm, to history by its universality and to science by its moral end.
(f) All forms of poetry have a unique appealthe pastoral by its helpful comments
on contemporary events and life in general, the elegy by its kindly pity, the satire
by its pleasant ridicule of the follies of mankind, the lyric by its sweet praise, epic
by its loftiest truths in the loftiest manner, comedy by its ridiculous imitation of
errors, and tragedy by its demonstration of the uncertainty of this world.
(g) Poetry teaches and moves to virtue.
2. The poet is not a liar: it is not poetry that abuses man's wit but man's wit that
abuses poetry.
3. Plato, in fact, found fault not with poetry in general but with the inferior kind of
poetry of his age in his country, the poetry which tried to dominate other
disciplines. Plato was not an adversary but a patron of poetry.
4. The first historians and philosophers were poets