ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -An Apology for Poetry (or The Defence of Poesy) is a work of literary criticism by Elizabethan poet Philip Sidney. It was written in approximately 1580 and first published in 1595, after his death.

Detailed explanation-2: -Sidney does recognize the importance of both History and Philosophy but maintains that poetry represents an artistic perspective of both. Sidney addresses the accusations that poets are liars or falsifiers by claiming someone cannot lie if they never attempt to tell the truth in the first place.

Detailed explanation-3: -Sidney penned several major works of the Elizabethan era, including Astrophel and Stella, the first Elizabethan sonnet cycle, and Arcadia, a heroic prose romance. He was also known for his literary criticism, known as The Defense of Poesy.

Detailed explanation-4: -It was written partly in response to Stephen Gosson’s The School of Abuse (1579), which, dedicated to Sidney, attacked poetry on moral grounds.

Detailed explanation-5: -In “An Apology for Poetry, ” Sidney mounts a courtroom-style case (i.e., an apologia) for imaginative writing, following a traditional structure according to which, after an introduction, he articulates the qualities that make poetry superior to philosophy and history.