Horace: Ars Poetica


 * Horace:
 * Quintus Horatius Flaccus
 * 65-8 BCE
 * Son of a freed slave, but gained good education in Rome’s private academies
 * “He served for a time as a clerk in government offices, but his talent as a poet and satirist came to the attention of Virgil, who introduced him to the renowned Roman poet Maecenas. Maecenas provided Horace with encouragement and money, and ultimately, the farm in the Sabine hills to which he retired.” (82)
 * Ars Poetica
 * “Like Pope’s Essay on Criticism,” the Ars Poetica contains dozens of lines and phrases that passed into the Latin language (and to an extent into English) as proverbs or catch phrases.” Coined catch phrase “purple patches” (purple prose) as “an adage for any pretentious activity.”
 * Has little in common with Aristotle, although some see Ars Poetica as a commentary on the former’s work, Poetics.
 * Horace “offers two rationales [for mimesis]: literary tradition and the fact that iambics are better to drown out a noisy and inattentive audience.”
 * Horace valued audience response over mimesis.
 * Mimesis: “Imitation; specifically the representation or imitation of the real world in a work of art, literature, etc. Sometimes used with reference to Aristotle Poetics 1447a or Plato Republic 598b. Although Plato and Aristotle use mimesis to refer generally to imitation of nature in art, both also use the term more specifically. Plato contrasts two types of speech: the author’s own narrative voice (diegesis) and the ‘imitated’ voice of a character (mimesis). Aristotle extended this use to encompass imitative action as well as speech.” (OED)
 * “The poet schooled stick to traditional subjects… but treat them in a new way. Poetic language should be novel, but not too novel — and the only way of judging the mean here is by closely observing the audience and the literary marketplace” Play to your audience.
 * **..”the ultimate aim of poetry:  aut prods aut delectare, to teach or to delight — or both if possible, because the poet’s audience, made up of diverse types, will require both…”**