Ars Poetica

Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry), a Latin poem by the Roman poet Horace, is considered a classic text on poetic form and theory. The poem provides advice to writers on the forms and subject matters that make beautiful and worthwhile verse.

Horace wrote Ars Poetica around 15 BCE as an epistle, or letter, to Lucius Calpurnius Piso and his two sons, both of whom desired to become poets. The poem is divided into 14 parts, each of which gives advice and provides illustrative examples from the classical tradition of ancient literature. Poetic themes explained in these sections include unity and harmony, authorial purpose, adherence to tradition, consistency, characterization, style and meter, dramatic theory, and poetic genius. Horace develops a theory of poetry from the perspective of a successful professional poet. Unlike some of his predecessors, like Plato and Aristotle, who produced literary theory from a philosophical perspective, Horace writes as a practicing poet.

This study guide refers to the 1863 prose translation of Ars Poetica, edited by C.