Ars Poetica is a poem written as an epistle to Lucius Calpurnius Piso and his two sons, both of whom desired to become poets. It's considered a classic text on poetic form and theory. 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.

Beginning with the principle that poetry requires unity and harmony. Horace compares the disproportionate painting of a woman’s head on a fish’s body, saying no one could believe such an image nor could they “refrain from laughter” So, too, must the writer compose poetry with attention to the unity of form and content. Loftier subject matter requires a higher level of diction, whereas baser topics require a more common and rougher language. Regardless of the subject matter, the form should always adhere to a “simple and uniform” expression. So, the poet must know their subject matter well, otherwise the product will be incompetent. Likewise, the poet’s choice of words must be precise and conform to the content. Horace also allows for the creation of new words, albeit with an awareness of tradition and propriety.

Horace then catalogs the genres of poetry according to the subject. For example, Homer wrote epics about wars and kings. Iambic verse is best for these subjects, which require powerful emotions, actions, and dialogue. Lyrics are best for celebrations of the gods. Mournful feelings work well in elegies. He writes, “A comic subject will not be handled in tragic verse,” to emphasize the need to align content and form. Formal beauty is not enough. Poets must write verse that affects the audience emotionally and morally. In this sense, Horace insists that the finest poetry moves readers to passionate feeling and virtuous action.

Horace contemplates whether talent or effort makes the greatest poets. The best poets must have the requisite natural genius but also the discipline to refine their skills. A critical ability to judge and revise one’s work must be developed through study and training. Poets should trust reputable critics they deem worthy of sound judgment. Acceptance of flattery will only harm the poet.

Finally, Horace admits that most esteemed poets act with a strain of “madness” in their lives. This characteristic is a consequence of attaining technical perfection of craft and possessing poetic genius. Other poets and citizens in general should treat the “mad” poet with kindness and leave them alone so that they can produce great works of art. ( )

Forty years ago (age 8? joke) I read most of these; I'm surprised to find them all shorter and easier than I then thought--especially the epodes, some, only thirty lines. The satires and epistles max out around 130 lines. Though any poet who lasts a couple millenia is five-star, I removed a star simply because Horace is not salacious enough for my Latin taste. I prefer Martial (cf Byron's "the nauseous epigrams of Martial") and Catullus and Ovid. My favorite Latin poets are the ones Rousseau blames for corrupting Rome, causing its decline by being "obscene" (a word I would only apply to Martial, and only one of his, Bk XI).
Horace composes hexameter dactyls, for his Satires and Epistles; he uses the same meter as heroic verse like the Aeneid. Or the Metamorphoses, though Ovid broke away in his love books, took a foot away from hexameters for elegiac couplets. A few lines from Horace's first Epistle:

Silver's less valuable than gold, though gold's
less than virtue. "Fellow Americans,
make money-- Then worry about being
good." That's Wall Street speaking, young and old
alike, Backpack set and too, the Blackberry. (I.i.52ff)

If you're wondering, my "Fellow Americans" is Horace's "O cives, cives..." Forty lines later, he describes my classroom experience,

If you see my hair cut jagged, uneven,
you students laugh, or if my collar's
worn, my cuff frayed, my overcoat, well...
you laugh. Teachers are figures of fun
to the stupid...and to smart-alecks.
But would you laugh if my ideas are
too stupid for words, only acceptable
in the Republican primary? I would.

He ends this first verse letter,
Sum it up: Less than Jove only
Is the wise man, who is rich enough,
free, honored, goodlooking, therefore king
of others, and above all, healthy--
except when bothered by this damn cold. (lines 106-09)

His Satires are not political, but behavioral. For instance, he observes of singers their reluctance when asked, or their plenitude when ignored, "inter amicos / ut numquam inducant animum cantare rogati, / inussi numquam desistant." Asked to sing, they don't, but can't be stopped, if unasked. (I.iii.p33). He continues with a specific singer, then looks at his ability to accept criticism of his inconsistencies, or anyone's ability. And Horace's very next satire defends satire, but in more detail in Book 2, II, #1. Some say his verse is too "acer," too cutting, others, too weak; what to do? Trebatus says, Stop. Horace, "But I can't sleep." "Then oil up and swim across the Tiber three times, and with nightfall, gas up with wine. You'll sleep. Or write about victorious Caesar"(126). Horace, "No, I can't write about war--not everybody can write about Parthians. A thousand different tastes for a thousand men. For me, "me pedibus delectat claudere verba."(128) I like housing words in a beat.
He describes specific critics, Cervius sues, Turius IS a judge, will fine you, Scaeva the big spender will polish off his great aunt with hemlock.
I had first read these a couple of decades back. Wonderful account of travel, by boat overnight through the Pontine swamp, meeting up with Vergil and Maecenas in Campania, on to Benevento, on to Brindisium to mediate with Marc Antony for Augustus.

Then there's his magnificent, thorough Ars Poetica, 500 lines. My teacher Archibald MacLeish wrote a much briefer one, easily memorized, which famously ends,
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea./
A poem should not mean
But be.

Horace begins his,
To a human head a sculptor joins a horse's
Ass, and daubs scatteres feathers onto
Limbs from gross anatomy lab, s a woman's
Lovely top bottoms in a black hairy fish
That can stink. Now you're laughing at me, but
How's this any worse than a book
Where nothing fits, from head to foot?
Sure sculptors are free to be licentious,
But shouldn't even "poetic license" be licensed?
I grant it just as it's to me been granted,
But not to this extent, the sweet turned tart,
Serpents twinned with birds, lambs tigers. (AWP, Princeton, 1978) ( )

Edition: // Descr: xxx, 509 p. 17 cm. // Series: The Loeb Classical Library Call No. { 874 H78-L 2 } Series Edited by T.E. Page With an English Introduction by H. Rushton Fairclough Contains Index of Proper Names. // //

Edition: // Descr: ix, 306 p. 19 cm. // Series: College Series of Latin Authors Call No. { 874 H78 23 } Series Edited by Clement Lawrence Smith and Tracey Peck Edited with Notes by J.B. Greenough. // //

Edition: // Descr: ix, 306 p. 19 cm. // Series: College Series of Latin Authors Call No. { 874 H78 3 } Series Edited by Clement Lawrence Smith and Tracey Peck Edited with Notes by J.B. Greenough. // //

Edition: // Descr: vii, 317 p. 20.5 cm. // Series: Call No. { 874 H78 6 } A Modern English Verse Translation by Smith Palmer Bovie Contains Notes. // //

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