Sydney’s Definition of Poetry and its superiority over Philosophy & History

Sydney’s Definition of Poetry and its superiority over Philosophy & History

Philip Sidney defends poetry in his essay “Apology for Poetry” from the accusations made by Stephen Gosson in his “School of Abuse” dedicated to him. There, Gosson makes some objections against poetry. Sidney replies to the objections made by Gosson very emphatically, defending poetry in his essay. Sidney does this in a very logical and scholarly way.

The major objections against poetry are:

(a) “that there being many other more fruitful knowledges, a man might better spend his time in them then in this”;

 (b) that it is the mother of lies;

(c) that it is the nurse of abuse; infecting us with many pestilent desires; and

(d) that Plato had rightly banised poets from his ideal republic.

Sidney’s replies to these objections:

(a)      Defending poetry against the first charge, he says that man can’t employ his time more usefully than in poetry. He says that “no learning is so good as that teacheth and moveth to virtue, and that none can both teach virtue, and thereto as much as poetry”.

(b)      His answer to the second objection that poets are liers is that of all writers under the sun the poet is the least lier. The poet creates something by emotion or imagination against which no charge of lying can be brought. The astronomer, the geometrician, the historian and others, all make false statements. But poet “nothing affirms, and therefore never lieth”, his end being “to tell not what is or what is not, but what should or should not be”. The question of truth or falsehood would arise only when a person insists on telling a fact. The poet does not present fact but fiction embodying truth of an ideal kind.

(c)      The third objection against poetry that it is the nurse of abuse, “infecting us with many pestilent desires or wits” may be partly justified, but for this a particular poet may be blamed but not poetry. To this charge, Sidney replies that poetry does not abuse man’s wit but it is man’s wit that abuses poetry. All arts and sciences misused had evil effects, but that did not mean that they were less valuable when rightly employed. Abuse of poetry, according to Sidney, is not the problem of poetry but of the poet.

(d)      The fourth objection that Plato had rightly banished the poets from his ideal republic is also not tenable because Plato sought to banish the amoral poets of his time, and not poetry itself. Plato himself believed that poetry is divinely inspired. In “Ion”, Plato gives high and rightly divine commendation to poetry. His description of the poet as “a light-winged and sacred thing” reveals his attitude to poetry. Sidney concludes, “So as Plato banishing the abuse, not the ‘Thing’, not banishing it, but giving due honour unto it, shall be our patron and not adversary”.

In this way, Sidney very strongly defends poetry against the accusations made by Stephen Gosson on poetry.

Superiority of poetry over history and philosophy:

In the promotion of virtue, both philosophy and history play their parts. Philosophy deals with its theoretical aspects and teaches virtue by precepts. History teaches practical virtue by drawing concrete examples from life. But poetry gives both practical and precepts examples. Philosophy, being based on abstractions, is “heard of utterance and mystery to be conceived.” It cannot be a proper guide for youth. On the other hand, the historian is tied to empirical facts that his example drags no necessary consequence. Poetry gives perfect pictures of virtue which are far more effective than the mere definitions of philosophy. It also gives imaginary examples which are more instructive than the real examples of history. The reward of virtue and the punishment of vice is more clearly shown in poetry than in history. Poetry is superior to philosophy in the sense that it has the power to move and to give incentive for virtuous action. It presents moral lessons in a very attractive manner. Things which in themselves are horrible as cruel battles, monsters are made delightful in poetic imitation. Poet is therefore the monarch of all knowledge. “For he doth(does) not only show the way but giveth(gives) so sweet a prospect into the way as will entice any man to enter into it.”

The poet does not begin with obscure definitions which load the memory with doubtfulness, “but he cometh(comes) to you with words set in delightful proportion, either accompanied with or prepared for the well-enchanting skill of music and with a tale for suit he cometh unto you, with a tale which holdeth(holds) children from play and old man from the chimney corner. And pretending no more, doth intend the winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue.”

Significance of “An Apology for Poetry”

Significance of “An Apology for Poetry”

An Apology for Poetry is the most important contribution to Renaissance literary theory. Sidney advocates a place for poetry within the framework of an aristocratic state, while showing concern for both literary and national identity (Griffiths). Sidney responds in Apology to an emerging antipathy to poetry as expressed in Stephen Gosson’s The Schoole of Abuse (1579). Gosson offers what is in essence a puritan attack on imaginative literature (Griffiths). What is at stake in Sidney’s argument is a defense of poetry’s nobility. The significance of the nobility of poetry is its power to move readers to virtuous action (Robertson). True poets must teach and delight – a view that dates back to Horace.

In an era of antipathy to poetry and puritanical belief in the corruption engendered by literature, Sidney’s defense was a significant contribution to the genre of literary criticism. It was England’s first philosophical defense in which he describes poetry’s ancient and indispensable place in society, its mimetic nature, and its ethical function (Harvey). Among Sidney’s gifts to his contemporaries were his respect for tradition and willingness to experiment (Robertson). An example of the latter is his approach to Plato. He reconfigures Plato’s argument against poets by saying poets are “the least liar” (Leitch). Poets never claim to know the truth, nor “make circles around your imagination,” nor rely on authority (Letich). As an expression of a cultural attitude descending from Aristotle, Sidney, when stating that the poet "never affirmeth," makes the claim that all statements in literature are hypothetical or pseudo-statements (Frye). Sidney, as a traditionalist, however, gives attention to drama in contradistinction to poetry. Drama, writes Sidney, is “observing neither rules of honest civility nor of skillful poetry” and thus cannot do justice to this genre (Leitch).

In Sidney's day anti-theatricality, an aesthetic and ideological concern, flourished among Sidney’s circle at court (Acheson). Theatre became a contentious issue in part because of the culmination of a growing contempt for the values of the emergent consumer culture. An expanding money economy encouraged social mobility. Europe, at this time, had its first encounter with inflation (Davies). London's theatres at that time grew in popularity so much that by 1605, despite the introduction of charges, London commercial theatres could accommodate up to eight thousand men and women (Hale). Sidney had his own views on drama. In Apology, he shows opposition to the current of his day that pays little attention to unity of place in drama (Bear), but more specifically, his concern is with the "manner" that the "matter" is conveyed (Leitch Sidney). He explains that tragedy is not bound to history or the narrative but to "laws of poesy," having "liberty, either to feign a quite new matter, or to frame the history to the most tragical conveniency".

Sidney employs a number of strategies to assert the proper place of poetry. For instance, he argues against the way in which poetry was misaligned with youth, the effeminate and the timorous. He does so by introducing the idea that “poetry is the companion of camps” and by invoking the heroes of ages past (Leitch). Sidney’s reverence for the poet as soldier is significant because he himself was a soldier at one time. Poetry, in Apology, becomes an art that requires the noble stirring of courage (Pask).

Sidney writes An Apology for Poetry in the form of a judicial oration for the defense, and thus it is like a trial in structure. Crucial to his defense is the descriptive discourse and the idea that poetry creates a separate reality (Harvey). Sidney employs forensic rhetoric as a tool to make the argument that poetry not only conveys a separate reality, but that it has a long and venerable history, and it does not lie. It is defensible in its own right as a means to move readers to virtuous action

Themes in Philip Larkin's poetry

THEMES IN PHILIP LARKIN'S POETRY

Theme is derived from the Greek words"Proposition, Deposit".  According to A Dictionary of Literary Terms by MARTIN GRAY:

"Theme is the abstract subject of a work, its central idea or ideas, which may or may not be explicit or obvious. A text may contain several themes or themetic interests."

For example : it can be argued thatSHAKESPEARE's King Lear (c.1605)touches upon all the following themes;  rashness, evil, the nature of truth, appearance and reality, kinship, sexuality, ingratitude, selfishness, and so on.

PHILIP LARKIN's poetry has a variety of themes: such as religion, melancholy, pessimism, realism, isolation, love, nature, social chaos, alienation, boredom, death, time and sex etc. Some critics have pointed out the narrowness of his range of themes, while his admirers have expressed their praise for his distinctive treatment of these themes but his limited work has unlimited depth. There are many themes in his poetry which are as follow:

i. Religion is the most prominent and dominant theme of his poetry. Larkin has composed his poetry in the context of his temperament and of his personal views on life, religion, and religious dogmas. He shares his thoughts about God, religion and the existing scenario of religious beliefs of different classes of society in one of his poems, ‘Church Going’ in a realistic manner. His poem ‘Church Going’ chronicles the account of that time, when people had become suspicious of the existence of God and religion. Larkin’s sarcasm is seen from the very first line of the poem:

“Once I am sure there's nothing going on.”

The description of the church would be familiar to anyone who has visited a small parish church in Britain. The layout is typical of the architecture prevalent in the Church of England, with a central aisle flanked by wooden pews with cushioned kneelers and prayer books placed in small shelves on the backs of the pews. An altar rail separates the sanctuary on the east end from the rest of the church. Behind the altar rail one sees a pulpit on the left, a lectern on the right, and in the center a large altar or communion table. Large Bibles are normally kept open to the day's reading on both pulpit and lectern. Although the narrator himself is not an active member of the Church, he nonetheless mounts the lectern and reads the lesson, even closing with the words "Here endeth the lesson," (which would not be in the Bible itself -- suggesting the narrator recalls them from memory) precisely as a lay reader would during a service. He then returns to his persona as a non-religious tourist, dropping a sixpence (roughly equivalent to a quarter in U.S. terms) into the collection box and signing the visitor book. The narrator resolves this contradiction with an understanding that the value of churches and religion lies in what he calls their seriousness, or their long tradition of being a place concerned with the great and meaningful issues of life and death, as opposed to the ordinary and everyday. The narrator finally understands his own reason for seeking out churches and the purpose of the churches he seeks in the final two stanzas:

“It pleases me to stand in silence here; / A serious house on serious earth it is, ... / And that much never can be obsolete, / Since someone will forever be surprising / A hunger in himself to be more serious, / And gravitating with it to this ground, / Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in ...”

ii. Melancholy which means "a deep feeling of sadness that lasts for a long time and often cannot be explained".Melancholy embraces all his themes. This is also the most prominent and dominant theme of his poetry. It is because of his incurable pessimistic attitude. ERIC HOMBERGER, in 'The Art of the Real ' describes him as:

"The saddest heart in the post war supermarket".

LARKIN's attitude in his poem"Ambulances" is pessimistic with an atmosphere of pathos and melancholy hovering over it. The poem shows thehollowness and emptiness of modern man who has no time to show love and sympathy for a sick man, he says:

"And sense the solving emptiness / That lays just under all we do."

That modern man is devoid of sympathy, he only pays lip service for the sick man, but no practical solution.

iii. The element of Chaos which means "a state of complete confusion and lack of order" and Destruction is distinct in LARKIN's poetry, as his poemMCMXIV(1914) .It illuminates the poet's impression of the post war world.LARKIN fails to come out of the horrors of war. His poetry revolves around the disastrous and chaotic effects of war. He minutely observes the chaotic social, political, economic and theological system. He discusses the chaotic situation in which people were forced to migrate to villages in search of shelter.LARKIN sympathises with the lost generation  and criticizes at the craze for war.

iv. His poem, "Church Going"shows Nihilism which means ''a philosophical doctrine that suggests the lack of belief in one or more reputedly meaningful aspects of life'' andPessimism which means ''a state of mind in which one anticipates undesirable outcomes or believes that the evil or hardships in life outweigh the good or luxuries.'' ANDREW MOTION says that:

"Larkin has often been regarded as a hopeless, inflexible pessimist"

 Church Going deals with contemporary agnosticism. The narrator in this poem is very skeptical about churches. LARKIN's dilemma is not whether to believe in God or not, but what a man can replace with God. Though the 'Church' is the symbol of faith, peace and purity yet in the modern age people have lost faith in Church. He says:

"Who will be the last, the very / Last to seek this place for what It was."

And further he says that:

"Shall we avoid them as unlucky places? "

As for as the nihilism is concerned,LARKIN talks about the negation of life and shows his disgust with the modern civilization.

 v. Realism is also a dominant theme in LARKIN's poetry. In Church Going, it shows the disintegration of religion and church as an institution, that people are losing faith in existing Church and Christianity. And Church has failed to prove its importance and value in the society. In "Mr. Bleaney", Larkin has described the life of an ordinary man. Mr. Bleaney is actually a post war tattered person who doesn't realise the importance of time. He observes that the room is dirty and there is no room for books. It also contains autobiographical elements. MCMXIV is based on reality, it shows the condition of people just before the war, it also highlights  the miserable condition of the people whereas , the people are simple and innocent the title of the poem also stresses that the era of peace before war can never be retreated. He says:

" Those long uneven lines standing as patiently / As if they were stretched outside the Oval and Villa Park. "

"Ambulances" is also a very realistic poem, it shows the picture of post war world, where people are sick and dying day and night.

vi. Loneliness and Alienationwhich means "a sense of not belonging, either to a community or to one's own sense of self" are the recurrent themes ofLARKIN. His poem "Mr. Bleaney" is about the wretched plight of modern man and its pleasures. MR. BLEANEYlives in abject poverty because of economic pressures. The poet satirises at the modern civilization which is going to dogs. It is full of chaos and there is no hope for betterment in the life of a common man.

vii. Love is another significant theme of his poetry. He regards love as a supreme illusion. Love comes in the guise of melancholy. His poetry shows that modern man has no love and sympathy for others. So, he doesn't depict love as very ardent or satisfying passion. He believes that every one is sure to be disappointed in love. His poem "No Road" depicts the impossibility of the fulfillment of love. He always tries to explore the gap between what one expects in love and what he receives in it as MR. BLEANEY and the man in Ambulance both are deprived of love in their lives.

viii. LARKIN's pessimism leads him to contemplate about Death. It is the dominant theme in his poetry. His imagination is always gripped with the idea of death which made him a contemplative soul. Almost every critic noted his obsession with death. He emphasizes on the omnipresence of death. His poem "Ambulances"represents death. He says that the busy routine of an urban neighborhood is disturbed by the sudden emergence of an ambulance. ANDREW MOTION remarks:

 “The poem "Ambulances" modestly and devoutly collects evidence of ordinary life to create a truth which can be universally acknowledged.”

 The sight of the graves makes a man wiser therefore every grave reminds the thoughts of death. It is ‘Ambulances’, however, that provides us with the bluntest depiction of human mortality, with its vivid descriptions of illness and death.  The poem exposes:

“The solving emptiness / That lies just under all we do.”

Death itself figures as a subject in'Aubade' He works all day long and drinks at night while 'unresting death'draws nearer to him every day and his mind is blank without any thought about how and when he will die. Work may also help to combat the thought of death, but it cannot stave it off. So, the poet says in'Toad Revised':

"Give me your arm, old toad: / Help me down Cametry Road."

ix. The theme of Boredom andSadness also rules over LARKIN's poetry. Insignificance of man is described in his poem Going . LARKIN writes in 'Dockery and Son' that 'life is first boredom'. His rejection of life was due to the fact that it never exercised any fascination for him. He says:

"Whether or not we use it life, it goes. "

Again, in "Dockery and Son" ,he says:

"Childhood for him was a forgotten boredom."

 x. Nature is represented inLARKIN's poetry as impersonal and neutral. He doesn't take nature as holy mother; rather it comes in the clock of chaos and destruction. He says:

"Nature is impersonal and neutral."

So, he doesn't highlight the beauty of nature but he only gives the description of canals, civic life, village and industry. However, he imparts a moralizing power to nature as he says that the trees don't allow people to believe in their immortality. The trees renew themselves every year and invite men to follow their example of refreshing the life.

xi. LARKIN's poetry reveals his awareness of the passing of Time, that's why he considers that the man is a salve of time. He vividly discusses the adverse effects of time on man. Like HARDY, he is obsessed with the destructive nature of time. The three phases of time, present, past and future are mutually exclusive but not oblivious. He says himself in "Reference Back":

"Though our element is time,/ We are not suited to the long perspectives / Open at each instant of our lives. / They link us to our losses."

Deep and profound is the influence of the social and political atmosphere of his time on Larkin’s poetry. Larkin’s realistic approach towards his Timemakes him write what he has written. We can see the true portrait of the post-war England in Larkin’s collection of poetry, or it can be said that his poetry is greatly reinforced by the cataclysmic scenario of post-war England.

Time links us to our past. The dreams and hopes which we fondly cherished are blasted as we grow old and we are overcome with a sense of loss. "There is a double cruelty in time'. P.R. KINGcomments:

"It both reminds us what we might have had, and turns what we do have into a sense of disappointment."

xii. Sex is one of Larkin’s main themes. He talks about people doing it, his lack of it, and his desperate desire for some of it. Larkin obviously isn’t getting any sexual fulfillment from anyone and he is unafraid to show that. BRUCE MEYER, a poetry critic, said of Larkin’s book High WINDOWS,

“Larkin’s poetry shows his pathetic and unattainable desires for love, passion, and human contact.”

Another thing that LARKIN's poetry does is make people relate to his problems and feelings and also desire the things he wants. LARKIN invokes his own jealousy of people who are having sex upon his readers. LARKIN targets people who aren’t getting sexual fulfillment and makes them feel the same way he does: unhappy with their current predicament (not having sex) and possessing a desire to change this situation. Again BRUCE MEYER, “High Windows is about the sexual

“When I see a couple of kids / And guess he’s fucking her… Everyone old has dreamed of all their lives- Bonds and gestures pushed to one side.”

In the end, one can say thatLARKIN, being a modern poet, has taken up the themes of religion, melancholy, pessimism, realism, isolation, love, nature, social chaos, alienation, boredom, death, time and sex in his poetry. This approach is quite clear from his treatment of the questions of belief knowledge and perceptions. All these things were necessary because of the conditions of Post War England and also his treatment of these themes is very unique, realistic and convincing

RAPE OF THE LOCK text line 445 onwards in urdu/hindi

Religious n thelogical theme in Dr Faustus

==============
TOPIC: "Religious and theological themes In Doctor Faustus"
============
1) Satire of the Pope and Catholicism
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Doctor
Faustus was written at a time of religious
conflict and controversy in England.
Marlowe, through his work as a
government agent (see Author section)
was well acquainted with the nature of the
conflict. The main anxiety was that, after
the reformation of the English Church
under Henry VIII, his eldest daughter's
brief return to Catholicism, and the
consolidation of Protestantism in the long
reign of Elizabeth I, the country would be
invaded or otherwise undermined and
returned to Catholicism. (See Religious /
philosophical context > Protestant versus
Catholic )
In this atmosphere, it is hardly surprising
that Doctor Faustus contains a good deal
of satire of the Pope and his court as
representatives of the Catholic faith  The worldly interests in food
and drink exhibited by the Pope, his
cardinals and bishops carry the weight of
the play's religious satire. Faustus and
Mephastophilis play practical jokes on the
Pope and his monks , exposing them as
non-spiritual and materialistic. The Pope's
inability to deal with the apparent
presence of evil spirits at his court is also
the target of Marlowe's satire and this is
strengthened by the jokes about the
excommunication ritual and the mocking
remarks about
about Purgatory .
~~~~~~~~~
2) Grace and damnation
~~~~~~~
The play is full of references to grace and
damnation . Faustus' practice of black
magic and his pact with Mephastophilis,
the agent of God's enemy Satan,
condemns him to damnation and eternal
punishment in Hell. But throughout the
play, almost until its last lines, Faustus is
conscious of the possibility of repentance
and salvation , by the intervention of God's
grace and mercy . This is the message
carried by the Good Angel and the Old
Man (see Characterisation > Good and Evil
Angels and the Old Man ). Both these
characters remind Faustus that God's
forgiveness is granted to even the
greatest of sinners , provided that they are
truly penitent . It is for this reason that
Mephastophilis is always alarmed when
Faustus calls on God for help: he
understands the power of God's grace as
well as his punishments. And it is the
sense that he has cut himself off from
God that makes Faustus' final speech so
anguished and poignant.
~~~~~~~~
3) Good and evil
~~~~~~~~
The conflict between good and evil and
God and the devil lies at the heart of the
play, and the battleground is Faustus'
soul . The Good and Evil Angels,
representing the two sides of Faustus'
character, are constantly fighting for its
possession, while the Old Man is a living
example of an individual whose soul
belongs firmly to God. Other characters
also vie for Faustus' soul: Valdes and
Cornelius tempt him towards necromancy
and conjuring the devil, while Wagner and
the scholars try to persuade him in the
opposite direction.