Song

Abstract Sidney describes poetry as ‘words set in delightful proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the well enchanting skill of music’: that is, verse written to music that already exists, or verse where musical setting is planned, imagined, or just not ruled out. This distinction is explored across Sidney’s poetry and in relation to musical culture both in his lifetime and in the decades after his death. Sidney deploys and/or represents the power and utility of song in all his major works. In particular, the chapter examines how Sidney’s practice engages with contemporary international song styles, from elite humanist experiments to more popular forms; song as ‘enchantment’; song as the embodied practice of performing alone or with others, and of listening; what Sidney has to say about why we sing songs; and how the idea and practice of polyphony can help us read Sidney’s songs as sites of common ground.