Ars Poetica

The Ars Poetica established Horace’s authority as a poet-critic. Many renowned poets modeled their training and authorial personas on his theories. Horace’s relationship with his patrons illustrates his authority as a poet and critic in his time. Friends of Horace introduced him to his patron Maecenas while the poet was in his late thirties. Horace represents his relationship with Maecenas as one of camaraderie and friendship despite Horace’s financial and social dependence. Shortly after earning a patron, Horace published his first major work, the Satires. In this work, Horace versifies his life experiences, including poetry about his father and his patrons. When Horace began writing The Art of Poetry for another patron, Piso, he was already experienced in writing for wealthy and powerful men of the Roman government and army. Horace’s references to epics, elegies, popular dramas, and love lyrics denote his awareness of an audience with a taste for battle, heroism, politics, and passion.

The Horatian tradition also maintains an intellectual hold over the history of literary criticism. Numerous manuscripts, imitations, and commentaries have been identified from the medieval period. Likewise, Ars Poetica significantly influenced the literary production and criticism of the Renaissance. Translations from Latin were made in English, Italian, French, and Spanish. In English literature, Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism (1711) best exemplifies the prestige of Horatian conventions.

After the Enlightenment, The Art of Poetry remained relevant, especially in English literature. In 1809, Lord Byron published his English Bards and Scottish Reviewers and employed a Horatian perspective on literary criticism adapted for the 19th century. Byron’s Hints from Horace (1831) ventures even further into Horatian territory by imitating The Art of Poetry and arguing for Horace’s values against the literary criticism of Byron’s milieu. Alfred Tennyson’s The Palace of Arts (1832) espouses many of Horace’s precepts on diction, meter, and the intention of beautiful verse.

In the 20th century, Wallace Stevens’s Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction (1942) shares the Horatian belief that poetry requires years of disciplined training to perfect. Stevens also notes the profound importance of poetry to civilization. Stevens carries the Horatian maxim that poetry can both instruct and delight into the modern era by espousing key concepts such as unity, tradition, uniformity, appropriateness, and simplicity.