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I witl usewhatwe learnfrom Sidney'sDefenceof Poesy.concerningwhatpoetryis and

how it works,to judgehow well Sir ThomasMore'sUtopiaqualifiesasa work of poetry. I will

arguethat if we look to Sidney's referenceto Utopia in his Defence,it seemsthat when Sidney

judges Utopia as a "perfect way of patterninga Commonwealth"(l l7),he is referring to Utopia,

to "the whole Commonwealth" (117) of Utopia. Therefore,our first inclination towards making

our judgment is to focus our attentionon More's secondbook. However, having learnedfrom

Sidney that a work cannot be judged as poetry unless it moves its audience,and knowing that

Sidney refers to at least two sorts of audiencein his Defence (the learned and the child-like), we

note well that Sidney refers to Utopia ur- good way to "direct a prince" ( I 17). My thesisis if,
_l
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perhapsdue to our'oinfectedwill" (109), we fail to correctourselv on book tw9we
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"t("afocus
bjf {.r1, $**l.r{f ', I a a rfi.t*'rt':.-.'-"1'g/r*'
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judge Utopia u{ntt probiematicaily exemplibrng a work of poet$ h6wever, if Sidney's

Defence moves }rs;to dp what we know to do, with "our erectedwit" ( 109), we find that More

very well "practice[s] what Sidneypreaches"(Schuler,"Term Essay2): Utopia is indeed a work

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' t:"''' ' {'t t'o'1""
tr'6f '\. . 'q : ?++ ' '
, '. '' ;;r'l :? r'' lt, r ;'d* .s"q
poetry. {v' l' ) "!

i. '.

r,{ The essaywill explainthataswe look to seehow Sidneydefinespoetry,we find he does

,.,: . ,,
so in conjunctionwith distinguishingpoetryfrom both philosophyandhistory. After attending

to how he deflatesthe lattertwo disciplines,whenwe turn to book two of Utopia,we find that

Sidney's"perfectpicture[s]"(Sidney,Defenceof Poesy116),andhis generalprecepts,have

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"lr"t
,1.!-g"l botVthew.ayweattendlto
Utopiaandi&opians to us.
theyappear
andhow"attractive"
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However,I arguethat thoughit is temptingto makeourjudgnent basedon our-own reactionto^ pn^.,/,
:
{'
More's creation,we know thatitis how we imaginesomeone a princetr rc,r^r1*
who woutg/ro.goence
\ t'i.)t'{ '
reactingtlnOUe which counts. I explorethartsucha particularsort of leamedman would be

well pleasedwith Utooia, especiallywith its accountof the both charmingandridiculous

Dr. Schuler/ English 359 II
Patrick McEvoy-Halston

Raphaelfoundwithin bookong andmightjus{thereafterbeinspiredto influencea 'lrince ' i ,&t-r!-

?
y rl-t''" t "nc )l vt i
(especiallya leamedone,like b,ltzabeth).
Elizabeth). I
lrlgh fiottttfltstar
.:_\
,4Veplanto leaveyouwith thesetwo well dwelopedjudpe'nts of Utopia-bothinformed
by Sidney'sDefence;but onlyone/zftyrmovedby it. Weplanto parqfheq withoutofferinga

finaljudgnent;thereasonfor thisis I hopeto leaveasa surprise.However,I suspect,

despite

( J"""A
mytickery,thatmyownleamedreaderwillnotbeleftinastateof'\sronder." U^

I We only acknowledgethat certainexamplesof the Defenceinfluenceour first judgment.