poetry Quotes

Accordingly, the poet should prefer probable impossibilities to improbable possibilities. The tragic plot must not be composed of irrational parts.

It is this simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences-makes them, as the poets tell us, 'charm the crowd's ears more finely.' Educated men lay down broad general principles; uneducated men argue from... ...

The argument of Alcidamas: Everyone honours the wise. Thus the Parians have honoured Archilochus, in spite of his bitter tongue; the Chians Homer, though he was not their countryman; the Mytilenaeans Sappho, though she was a woman; the Lacedaemonians actually... ...

Why is it that all men who are outstanding in philosophy, poetry or the arts are melancholic?

Homer is the main one who taught other poets how to tell lies skillfully.

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

Homer has taught all other poets the skill of telling lies well.

The specific excellence of verbal expression in poetry is to be clear without being low.

Whether we call it sacrifice, or poetry, or adventure, it is always the same voice that calls.

A poet, like a painter or any artist, must copy one of three things: things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they should be. They use language—either common words,... ...