The Defence of Poesy
E463328
The Defence of Poesy is Sir Philip Sidney’s influential Elizabethan literary criticism essay that defends the value and moral power of poetry.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Defence of Poesy canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4711850 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Defence of Poesy Context triple: [Sir Philip Sidney, notableWork, The Defence of Poesy]
-
A.
The Progress of Poesy
The Progress of Poesy is an 18th-century Pindaric ode by Thomas Gray that celebrates the power and evolution of poetry from ancient Greece to modern times.
-
B.
Of the Love of Fame
"Of the Love of Fame" is a section of David Hume’s moral philosophy in which he analyzes the human desire for reputation and esteem as a key motive in ethical behavior.
-
C.
Original Sonnets on Various Subjects
"Original Sonnets on Various Subjects" is a prominent collection of sonnets by 18th-century English poet Anna Seward, showcasing her refined neoclassical style and emotional lyricism.
-
D.
The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets
The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets is Samuel Johnson’s major biographical and critical study of 17th- and 18th-century English poets, influential for its incisive literary judgments and character portraits.
-
E.
The Poet at the Breakfast-Table
The Poet at the Breakfast-Table is an 1872 collection of conversational essays by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., continuing his popular series of reflective, humorous breakfast-table dialogues.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Defence of Poesy Target entity description: The Defence of Poesy is Sir Philip Sidney’s influential Elizabethan literary criticism essay that defends the value and moral power of poetry.
-
A.
The Progress of Poesy
The Progress of Poesy is an 18th-century Pindaric ode by Thomas Gray that celebrates the power and evolution of poetry from ancient Greece to modern times.
-
B.
Of the Love of Fame
"Of the Love of Fame" is a section of David Hume’s moral philosophy in which he analyzes the human desire for reputation and esteem as a key motive in ethical behavior.
-
C.
Original Sonnets on Various Subjects
"Original Sonnets on Various Subjects" is a prominent collection of sonnets by 18th-century English poet Anna Seward, showcasing her refined neoclassical style and emotional lyricism.
-
D.
The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets
The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets is Samuel Johnson’s major biographical and critical study of 17th- and 18th-century English poets, influential for its incisive literary judgments and character portraits.
-
E.
The Poet at the Breakfast-Table
The Poet at the Breakfast-Table is an 1872 collection of conversational essays by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., continuing his popular series of reflective, humorous breakfast-table dialogues.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Elizabethan literary criticism
ⓘ
literary criticism essay ⓘ prose treatise ⓘ |
| addresses |
attacks on poetry by Puritans
ⓘ
charges that poetry is frivolous ⓘ charges that poetry is immoral ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
A Defence of Poesie
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
An Apology for Poetry NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| author | Sir Philip Sidney NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| centralClaim |
poetry has moral and ethical power
ⓘ
poetry is superior to philosophy and history in moving people to virtuous action ⓘ poetry teaches and delights ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | England ⓘ |
| dateWritten | circa 1579–1580 ⓘ |
| firstPrintedIn | London NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| form | prose essay ⓘ |
| genre |
literary criticism
ⓘ
poetics ⓘ |
| hasInfluencedAuthor |
John Dryden
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Percy Bysshe Shelley NERFINISHED ⓘ Samuel Taylor Coleridge NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
foundational text in English poetics
ⓘ
one of the earliest major works of English literary criticism ⓘ |
| influenced |
English Renaissance literary criticism
ⓘ
Romantic literary theory ⓘ defences of imaginative literature ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Aristotle
ⓘ
Horace NERFINISHED ⓘ Italian Renaissance criticism ⓘ Plato ⓘ |
| keyConcept |
delight as a vehicle for instruction
ⓘ
poet as maker ⓘ poetry as a means to virtue ⓘ poetry as feigned history ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | Renaissance humanism NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
defence of poetry
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
didactic function of poetry ⓘ imitation in literature ⓘ moral value of poetry ⓘ poetry ⓘ relationship between poetry and truth ⓘ role of the poet ⓘ |
| originalMedium | manuscript circulation ⓘ |
| period | Elizabethan era NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 1595 ⓘ |
| setting | England in the late 16th century ⓘ |
| structure | argumentative treatise ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Defence of Poesy Description of subject: The Defence of Poesy is Sir Philip Sidney’s influential Elizabethan literary criticism essay that defends the value and moral power of poetry.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Sir Philip Sidney