Ars Poetica - Definition and Overview

Ars Poetica is the name of at least three pieces of literature.

Horace (circa 18BC)

Ars Poetica (also known as "The Art of Poetry", Epistula Ad Pisones, or Letters to Piso) was a treatise on poetics. It was first translated into English by Queen Elizabeth I. The most famous quote from it is probably "bonus dormitat Homerus", or "even Homer nods" (an indication that even the most skilled poet can compose inferior verse.)

Also see Longest_word_in_English#Sesquipedalianism.

External links

• Latin text of poem (http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/horace/arspoet.shtml)

• English translation (http://www.english.emory.edu/DRAMA/ArsPoetica.html)

• Text at Perseus (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aid%3Dars-poetica).

• Famous quotes (http://people.brandeis.edu/~rind/eng171/Horace_tags.html)

Archibald MacLeish (1925 AD)

The best known poem by Archibald MacLeish took its title and subject from Horace's work. His poem "Ars Poetica" contains the line "A poem should not mean / but be.", which was a classic statement of the modernist aesthetic. The original manuscript of the poem resides in the Library of Congress.

External links

• Poem (http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/188.html)

• Image of original manuscript (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tri113.html)

• Analysis of poem (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/macleish/ars.htm)

Czeslaw Milosz (1961 AD)

Nobel Prize winner Milosz also wrote a poem with this title, though his poem had a question mark at the end of the title.

External links

• Poem (http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=6685&poem=183289)