ABSTRACT
Sir Philip Sidney's The Defence of Poesy provides a passionate yet scholarly argument that "poetry" is an important moral and intellectual pursuit. The Defence is a powerful defense of the humanities generally, not just of poetry, and a wonderful example of persuasive writing. As well as establishing a new field of enquiry, Sidney uses The Defence to counter an anti-literary movement that had gained traction in England. Many of Sidney's key ideas have already been well developed, not least the division of poetry into specific and distinguishable kinds, which was an embryonic version of formalism and genre theory. Sidney's concern with the emotional and instructive elements of poetry are part of a long debate on the response of the reader to a text, and understanding how those views have evolved is useful, albeit not necessary, for students of critical theory today.
