‘To Lift up the Mind’: Sidney’s Defence of Poesy and the Place and Purpose for Poetry among other Disciplines of Knowledge

MEAGHER, YELYZAVETA (2015) ‘To Lift up the Mind’: Sidney’s Defence of Poesy and the Place and Purpose for Poetry among other Disciplines of Knowledge. The Student Researcher, 3 (2). pp. 51-56.

	Text repository-coversheet.docx Download (44kB)
Preview	Text Meagher, Yelyzaveta (2015) ‘To Lift up the Mind’ Sidney’s Defence of P.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License CC-BY-NC-ND Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (135kB) | Preview

Abstract

Sidney’s Defence of Poesy was written at a time when poetry was looked down upon by critics in the English Renaissance. In his attempt to revive poetry as a genre and a mode of teaching, he makes use of many arguments relying on other scholars and writers to support his statements. The Defence of Poesy is divided into two parts, with the first part focusing on the values of philosophy, history and poetry as a means of deriving knowledge and virtue, while the second part is focused on the reasons for contempt towards poetry in Renaissance England. This essay focuses on the first part, examining Sidney’s arguments for poetry’s supreme purpose and place among other disciplines, paying particular attention to: the defence of poetry as prophecy, the eclectic scope of the defence, and the role of Plato’s and Aristotle’s philosophies in the work.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Poetry, Sir Philip Sidney, Renaissance, Philosophy, Virtue
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) P Language and Literature > PE English P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Divisions:	Institutes and Academies > Institute of Education and Humanities > Academic Discipline: Humanities and Social Sciences
Depositing User:	YELYZAVETA MEAGHER
Date Deposited:	20 Apr 2016 14:23
Last Modified:	11 Sep 2024 17:00
URI:	https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/544

Administrator Actions (login required)

Edit Item - Repository Staff Only