“The poet nothing affirms, and therefore never lieth.” — Sir Philip Sidney | V2Melody

“The poet nothing affirms, and therefore never lieth.”

Fiction is not falsehood because it does not claim literal fact · Essay, The Defence of Poesy

Sir Philip Sidney

About Sir Philip Sidney

Sir Philip Sidney

30 November 1554–17 October 1586

In the pantheon of Elizabethan literature, few figures embody the Renaissance ideal as completely as Sir Philip Sidney. Born into privilege on November 30, 1554, at Penshurst Place in Kent, Sidney would live only thirty-one years, yet his brief existence would illuminate the literary landscape of England with such…

More by Sir Philip Sidney

Poems by Sir Philip Sidney

More remarks by Sir Philip Sidney

“Poesy therefore is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle termeth it in the word mimesis—that is to say, a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring forth—to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture.”

Defining poetry as an art that represents experience through imaginative likeness · Essay, An Apology for Poetry

“There is no art delivered to mankind that hath not the works of nature for his principal object.”

Even the arts that invent still begin from nature · Essay, The Defence of Poesy

“It is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet, but that feigning notable images of virtues, vices, or what else, with that delightful teaching.”

Verse is ornament; invention and moral shaping define the poet · Essay, The Defence of Poesy