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A poet, a composer of odes, satires and epistles
Associated with the notions that “a poem is like a
painting,” that poetry should “teach and delight,”
as well as the idea that poetry is a craft whichrequires labour
His text was initially known as “Epistle to the
Pisones”
Ars Poetica is first found in Quintillan
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Takes the form of an informal letter advising would-
be poets of the wealthy
Technically a work of literary-critical and rhetorical
theory, it is written as a poem It is the first-known poem about poetics and as
such was imitated by several men of letters like
Geoffrey de Vinsauf, Pierre de Ronsard, Alexander
Pope, Lord Byron and Wallace Stevens
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Born the son of a freed slave, he was educated
at Rome, then Athens
It was during his lifetime that Rome was trans-
formed into an empire ruled by Octavian Fought with Brutus and Cassius against Octavian
and Mark Anthony
Granted a pardon and was introduced by Virgil toGaius Maecenas
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Stoicism – emphasis was on duty, discipline,political and civil involvement, and the acceptanceof one’s place in the cosmic scheme of things
Epicureanism and Skepticism The greatest poet of his age was Virgil
Aeneid is founded on Stoic ideals – as a wholewas intended to glorify and celebrate the Roman
Empire Ovid – Ars amoris – led to his banishment by
Augustus
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Metamorphoses – depicted Zeus as deceitfuland embroiled in petty quarrels with his wife,
Hera
Horace’s work lies somewhere between thesetwo poles of outright affiliation with the entire
political and religious register of imperial ideals
Horace accepted the Greek theory of imitation
while striving for originality in a Roman context
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(1) relation of writer to his work, his knowledge
of tradition, and his own ability (2) characteristics of the Ars Poetica as a verbal
structure (unity, propriety, and arrangement)
(3) moral/social functions of poetry, such asestablishing a repository of conventionalwisdom, providing moral examples throughcharacterization but also affording pleasure
(4) contribution of an audience to thecomposition of poetry (art and commodity)
(5) awareness of literary history and historicalchange in language and genre
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Was an acknowledged Roman literary genre
Highly personalized form of Horace’s text
disclaims any intention of writing a “technical”
treatise in Aristotelian sense Some of Horace’s richest insights take the form
of asides and almost accidental digressions
His “principles” are drawn from experience, nottheory
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“When you are writing, choose a subject that
matches your own powers, and test again and
again what weight your shoulders will take and
what they won’t take” (38-40) “As you find the human face breaks into a smile
when others smile, so it weeps, when others
weep; if you wish me to weep, you must first
express suffering yourself” (102-103)
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Calls for a “proper” relationship between formand content, expression and thought, style and
subject matter, diction and character
Horace’s notion of “form” encompasses
language itself – there is an intrinsic connectionbetween form and content (content cannot be
prior to or independent of form)
Old order of words passing away; wordsacquiring new meaning
“Minting” words – language being extended
through increasing recognition of its inadequacy
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stresses the amount of labour required for
composing good poetry
part of this is seeking out valid criticism of his
work from sincere and qualified people once a poem is published, the words used by
the poet will forever become public property, part
of a language inescapably social – “it will be
permissible to destroy what you have not
published: the voice sent forth cannot return”
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disembodiment of voice – once personalized, in
the form of speech, it now leaves the author
forever to become entwined in the huge networkof presupposition and openness to alternative
meaning known as “writing”
modern – rejecting the author’s intention as thesole determinant of a poem’s meaning –
meaning is determined by its situation within
larger structures of signification which lie beyond
the poet’s control