Ars Poetica
Ars Poetica exercised a tremendous influence during the Middle Ages and the Neo-
classical age. It was the Bible of classicism in England. The main ideas contained in Ars
Poetica are summarized below :—
Function and Nature of Poetry
Though not a systematic treatise on criticism, this poem can be divided into three parts :
(a) poesis (subject matter); (b) poema (form), and (c) poeta (the poet). Its main topics of
discussion are poetry, poetic style, and drama. Pope rightly says about Horace, ‘his precepts
teach but what his works inspire.’ He is deeply influenced by the Greeks. He recommends:
“my friends, study the great originals of Greece; dream of them by night and ponder them by
day.”
Horace nowhere calls poetry a process of imitation like Plato and Aristotle. Mere
imitation, according to him, is not enough for a poet often uses fiction and mingles facts
with fancy. To him the function of poetry was both to delight and instruct : ‘Poets desire
either to improve or to please, or to unite the agreeable and the profitabl ; and that ‘it is
not enough for poems to have beauty; they must also be pleasing and lead the listener’s soul
whither they will.’
The subject-matter of Poetryh
The subject-matter of poetry should be simple, i.e., from familiar material, and uniform,
that is full of wholeness. He says that he who chooses his subject wisely, will find that
neither words nor lucid arrangement will fail him, for sound judgment is the basis and
source of good writing.
Poetic Diction
Horace will always be remembered for his theory of poetic diction. Poetic diction, he
says, can never be altogether established and stationary affair. The function of language in
poetry is to express; but man’s experience, which poetry exists to express, is continually
changing, since it is continually adding to itself. With the growth of experience, the
language of poetry must keep pace, if it is to be truly expressive. Language is like a tree; and
its words are like leaves. As the years go on, the old leaves fall, and new leaves take their
place; but the tree remains the same. Horace’s observations on poetic diction are like those
of Aristotle. Following Aristotle, he also emphasises the right choice of words and their
effective arrangement in composition. A poet is free to use both familiar and new words.
New words continually go on coming to the poet like new leaves to the tree. The poet must
not rely wholly on the vocabulary of his predecessors; he must coin new words too. His
Observations on Style
Horace wished that the writer should observe the settled forms and shades of style in
poetry. He pointed out some of the shortcomings of style. ‘I endeavour to be brief and
become obscure; sinew and spirit desert the searcher after polish : one striving for grandeur
becomes bombastic; whosoever is excessively cautious and fearful of the tempest crawls
along the ground; and he who yearns after too prodigal a variety in his theme— he paints a
dolphin in the forest, or a wild boar amid the waves. If the poet does not have genuine
artistry, the effort to avoid an imperfection leads him into graver butchery.
Metres and their appropriateness
‘Homer has shown us in what metre may best be written the deeds of kings and great
captains, and sombre war. Verses of unequal length were first used for laments, later also for
the sentiment that attends granted beseechings. The Muse has given to the lyre the
celebration of the gods and their offspring, the victorious boxer, the horse, first in the race,
Ars Poetica
the amorous yearnings of youth, and the unrestrained pleasures of wine. If one does not
know and cannot observe the conventions and forms of poems, he does not deserve to be
called a poet. Comic material, for instance, is not to be treated in the verses of tragedy ;
similarly, it would be outrageous to narrate the feast of Thyestes in verse proper to common
daily life and almost to comedy.’ Sincerity of Emotion
‘It is not enough for poems to have beauty; they must also be pleasing and lead the
listener’s soul whither they will. If you would have me weep, you must first express grief
yourself Views on Drama
In Ars Poetica the treatment of drama is desultory. No systematic theory of drama is
presented on a larger basis. Only fragmentary and casual views are expressed, e.g. ‘Either
follow tradition or invent a story which is consistent. But the conventional features of
traditional characters should be preserved.’ ‘If in your tale you represent the renowned
Achilles, let him appear restless, passionate, inexorable and dauntless.’ ‘If you commit a
new theme on the stage and venture to create a new character, ct the first impression be
preserved to the end, and let his nature be consistent. ‘Let not Medea murder her children in
front of the audience nor impious Atreus cook human flesh in the public nor Procne be
changed into bird. Let a play be neither shorter nor longer than five acts and let no god
intervene unless some problem arises that demands to be solved. The number of actors
should not be more than three and the chorus should form an integral part of the action and
its songs should advance and subserve the interest of the plot.’ ‘Let it support the good and
give them kindly counsel, restrain the wrathful and favour those who fear to sin; let it praise
the fare of a simple table, salutary justice and Law and Peace with open gates’.
Horace studies drama under three heads : plot, characterization and style. Plot should be
borrowed from familiar material; the chorus should be an integral part of the plot; characters
should behave consistently and naturally; iambic metre was most suitable for drama.
Dramatic speech should observe propriety : it should suit the character, its sex, its age; its
station in life, its circumstances, its moods. A god will speak differently from a mortal, a
man from a woman, an aged man from a heated youth, a prosperous merchant from a poor
farmer, a man in grief from a man in joy, an angry-fellow from a playful one. if you utter
words ill-suited to your part, I shall either doze or smile.’ In all this Horace closely follows
Aristotle.
