Philip Sidney
Sidney was a courtier, poet, and prose writer whose Arcadia established the pastoral romance as a serious literary form in English. His critical work An Apology for Poetry laid foundations for English literary criticism.
Works
- The Countess of Pembroke's ArcadiaPastoral prose romance with political allegory set in imaginary Arcadian landscape
- Astrophil and StellaSonnet sequence of unrequited love and poetic devotion to a distant beloved lady
- An Apology for PoetryTreatise defending poetry as highest art form capable of moving human hearts
- The Defence of PoesyEssay arguing for the superiority of poetry over other forms of human expression
- ArcadiaPastoral romance with interlocked stories of love and virtue in idealized setting