SOURCE: “The Poetry of Sir Philip Sidney,” in ELH: A Journal of English Literary History, Vol. 12, No. 4, December 1945, pp. 251–78.

In the following essay, Spencer emphasizes the importance of “art, imitation, and exercise” in Sidney's early poetry and views Sidney as breaking convention with Astrophel and Stella.

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Although a large amount of literature has accumulated around the life and work of Sir Philip Sidney, it is somewhat remarkable that no thorough study of his poetry, as poetry, seems to exist. Courthope, in his History of English Poetry, describes Sidney's life rather than his writing, and though we frequently hear, in general terms, of the importance of Sidney's contribution to English poetry, most discussions of that contribution are concerned with its historical or autobiographical significance rather than its actual poetic value. Even the best of Sidney's critics and biographers, such as Miss Mona Wilson, tend to follow the example of...