Sir Philip Sidney summary

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Sir Philip Sidney, (born Nov. 30, 1554, Penshurst, Kent, Eng.—died Oct. 17, 1586, Arnhem, Neth.), English courtier, statesman, soldier, and poet. Born into an aristocratic family and educated to be a statesman and soldier, Sidney served in minor official posts and turned to literature as an outlet for his energies. Astrophel and Stella (1591), inspired by Sidney’s passion for his aunt’s married ward, is considered the finest Elizabethan sonnet cycle after William Shakespeare’s sonnets. The Defence of Poesie (1595), an urbane and eloquent plea for imaginative literature, introduced the critical ideas of Renaissance theorists to England. His heroic romance Arcadia, though unfinished, is the most important work of English prose fiction of the 16th century. None of his works was published in his lifetime. Wounded in action while soldiering in the Netherlands, he died from an infection, and he was widely mourned as the ideal gentleman of his day.

literary criticism Summary

Literary criticism, the reasoned consideration of literary works and issues. It applies, as a term, to any argumentation about literature, whether or not specific works are analyzed. Plato’s cautions against the risky consequences of poetic inspiration in general in his Republic are thus often

poetry Summary

Poetry, literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. (Read Britannica’s biography of this author, Howard Nemerov.) Poetry is a vast subject, as old as history and