like The Tortoise and the Hare teach patience So poetry is not lying Instead it is teaching through stories Waste of Time Gosson claims poetry is useless They think it does not teach practical skills like science or math Sidney disagrees He says poetry teaches morality better than other subjects Philosophy uses hard words and history mixes good and bad examples It is evident in the following quote For conclusion I say the philosopher teaches but he teaches obscurely so as the learned only can understand him that is to say he teaches that are already taught But poetry combines both It gives clear lessons through stories For example reading about brave heroes like Aeneas inspires courage Poetry also makes learning enjoyable So people remember lessons longer Even kings like Alexander the Great learned from Homer s poetry Poetry Corrupts Morals Critics say poetry encourages bad behavior They think love poems or comedies make people foolish or immoral Sidney says the problem is not poetry itself but bad poets A knife is not evil it is only if someone uses it for harm Good poetry like the Bible s parables teaches goodness Comedy makes people laugh at foolishness It helps them avoid mistakes Tragedy shows the dangers of pride and greed If some poems are bad we should blame the writer not poetry Plato Banned Poets So Poetry is Bad Some say even the great philosopher Plato criticized poets They say that Plato rightly banned them poets from his ideal society Sidney answers that Plato himself wrote in a poetic style Plato feared poetry because it was too powerful not evil Poetry moves emotions deeply which can be dangerous if misused But this power also makes poetry the best teacher Sidney says Plato only wanted to remove bad poets not poetry itself Good poetry like Homer s was still respected Overall Sidney scatters these words to the poetry haters while you live you live in love but never get favour for lacking skill of a sonnet and when you die your memory die from the earth for want of an epitaph In short Sidney wrote this book to protect poetry from unfair criticism He showed that poetry teaches inspires and improves people Though some bad poets may misuse it true poetry is noble Sidney believed poetry should be respected as a helpful and powerful art