We were assinged the task of selecting three pertinent passages from Sidney's Apology for Poetry for discussion. Here are the ones that really jumped out at me.

"Poesy therefore is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle termeth it in his word mimesis, that is to say, a representing, counterfeiting or figuring fort--to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture--with this end, to teach and delight."

Here Sidney is laying out the purpose that poetry serves, it's raison d'etre if you will. It sounds very much that he aligns, at least at this point in his essay and perhaps only on a superficial level, with the didactic application of literature. Interesting.

" The philosopher therefore and the historian are they which would win the goal[the best commendation], the one by precept and the other by example. But both, not having both, do both halt. For the philosopher, setting down with thorny argument the bare rule, is so hard of utterance and so misty to be concieved, that one hath no other guide but him shall wade in him till he be old before he shall find sufficient cause to be honest... On the other side, the historian, wanting the precept, is so tied, not to what should be but to what is, to the particular truth of things and not to the general reason of things, that his example draweth no necessary consequence, and therefore a less fruitful doctrine."

Sidney feels that two schools of learning which are often named the best that can be done, philosophy and history, actually aren't the best way to learn. The philosopher because everything gets so dense that one's energy will all be spent attempting to even understand the argument before applying it to ones life; the historian because history is bound to the facts, and therefore allows no real application for general things, or things of the imagination.

And then this phrase, which may or may not be one of the most important to the overall argument but which certainly stuck out to me.

"It is already said(and, as I think, truly said)it is not rhyming and versing that maketh poesy. One may be a poet without versing, and a versifier without poetry."

I found this strangely heartening. It suggests that poetry is a mindset, an approach, rather than a genre. This may explain why certain passages of prose fiction or nonfiction can seem more authentically poetic than certain poems read on NPR.