|
E211: British Literature to 1760 Philip Sidney Study Questions Alfred J. Drake | 423 UH | TW 12:45-1:45 | ajdrake@ajdrake.com "A Defense of Poesy" 1. What, according to Sidney, is the relationship between pleasure and learning? 2. How does the art of poetry differ from the other arts, all of which have "the works of nature" for their "principal object"? What is the subjection the poet disdains, the narrow warrant within which he refuses to be enclosed? In what two ways does the poet "grow in effect another nature"? 3. What is the distinction between the brazen world and the golden world? 4. In what exactly are we to recognize the "skill of the artificer"? In the work itself? 5. In what special way does a poet show man to have been made in the image of God? How does poetry provide "no small argument" for the truth of the doctrine of original sin? 6. Does Sidney agree with Horace about the end of poetry? 7. Does "rhyming and versing" make a poet, according to Sidney? What must he be able to feign? 8. What is the "ending of all earthly learning"? How necessary is this assumption to Sidney's argument that poetry is superior to moral philosophy and history? In what sense might the poet be called the moderator of philosophy and history? 9. How does Sidney summarize the case so far presented for giving the "laurel crown" to the poet? 10. What are the four "most important imputations" that, according to Sidney, have been "laid to the door of poets"? 11. How does Sidney reply to the charge that poetry is the "mother of lies"? 12. Sidney argues that one of the charges against poetry can be "transformed into just commendation." Explain. 13. How does Sidney reply to the argument against poetry based on Plato's authority? What does Plato, according to Sidney, attribute "unto poetry more than myself do"? 14. What two-part curse does Sidney send to one who has "so earth-creeping a mind that it cannot lift itself up to look to the sky of poetry"? Extra Questions for Those Interested in Astrophil and Stella Astrophil and Stella "Sonnet 1" 1. What kind of "Stella" does Sidney project and reach out to in this poem? Read the handout on Petrarchan sonnets. If you have read either Dante's Divine Comedy or Petrarch's Canzoniere, could you help us make a connection here with the female characters in these texts? 2. Observe the speaker's comments about poetic tradition and convention ("others' leaves," "inventions fine"). Since this sonnet is the first one in the whole series, what do you think Sidney might be doing by placing these comments first? 3. Now focus more closely on the last line, which closes the speaker's commentary on tradition and convention: "Fool, said my Muse to me, ‘look in thy heart and write'" (14). Why is this line self-contradictory? "Sonnet 5" 1. Try to read this poem in light of what we said in class about Renaissance psychology. 2. Focus on the line, "True, and yet true that I must Stella love" (14). What might this line imply about the speaker's position on that Renaissance "stair" of perception and knowledge of which we spoke? Can the speaker find some justification in Renaissance psychology for his love of Stella? 3. Is line 14 a kind of justification of the whole sequence Astrophil and Stella? Why or why not? "Sonnet 74" 1. What is the purpose of the obvious self-deprecation on the speaker's part? 2. Consider "Stella's kiss" in light of Peter Bembo's thoughts about the spiritual import of a kiss (Norton 982)--could there be a connection here? What might such a connection imply about the true source of Sidney's "inspiration?" Edition: Abrams, M.H. et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vols. 1A, 1B, 1C. 7th. edition.
|