Ars Poetica

Ars Poetica is Horace's Latin verse epistle on the making and judging of poetry. It discusses the relation of parts to a whole, suitable language, dramatic character and the effects a work produces on its audience. Advice about revision and criticism places disciplined practice beside imaginative talent. Horace's examples move between poetry and the stage, giving abstract principles the force of memorable comparisons. The work later became an important reference for European literary criticism, especially debates about coherence and decorum, while its conversational movement remains less rigid than a formal system of rules.