Horace's Ars Poetica

At the center of Ars Poetica is decorum. Decorum refers to the sense of balance that all good poetry must possess: instruction and delight. Poets must pay attention to appropriateness, unity, correct ratios, and talent. Horace emphasizes revision and truth; good poetry must be true to life.

Horace assumes that his audience already understands purity and the importance of balance. He seems to suggest that poetry is tied up in ethics, hence the need for balance and instruction. I would say that he takes for granted the access to poetry and the material conditions surrounding its production; that is, it is assumed that his audience can read, has been educated, and can afford to write poetry without working in the fields. In addition, Horace assumes that his audience already knows what poetry is, though he seems to expand its didactic and pleasurable dimension. Like Aristotle, Horace is a man speaking to other upper-class, educated men, whose values of ethics, education, purity, wealth, and duty he shares.

Though he does share quite a bit in common with his audience, I think that Horace believes in poetry’s ethical potential. With his conception of appropriateness at the center of his treatise, it would seem that poetry had gotten out of hand. Horace seems concerned with the ways that poetry has either been corrupted, or has been used to corrupt. I think he’s interested in creating a poetry that is morally and ethically pure, with just the right balance of beauty to offset its instructional impulse. In order to create poetry, the poet must constantly revise, and refrain from “sex and wine” while he writes. Poetry must mimic reality; Horace tells us that a good poet should only write what he himself has felt. Perhaps Horace is trying to purge the world of what he deems “bad” poetry; or poetry that serves no other purpose than to falsely delight. By promoting this, Horace reinforces ideas of decorum, purity, access, and truth. Like Aristotle, he, too, seems to place pleasure derived from poetry as a universal experience, with a universal formula for achieving this pleasure.

What is the relationship between pleasure and instruction? Does this relationship carry over today? I want to say no, because I can’t think of a time when I saw something designed to instruct me, that I also found beautiful. Then again, I’m always intrigued by cookbooks and 19^th-century domestic manuals, which do have some aesthetic appeal. Obviously, instruction itself can be pleasurable, especially if I’m the one doing it. But I don’t think this is what Horace means.

I’m also intrigued by this idea of balance. What does Horace have to gain by creating “balanced” poetry? Why the emphasis on balance? This might be because we tend to like things that are neat, clean, and, well – balanced. A “balanced diet” is what is supposed to make us healthy, and we’re supposed to keep our lives balanced as well. Is this what Horace means? Do we get this idea from Horace? How does balance contribute to aesthetic experience in general?

Finally, how does Horace conceive poetry’s role in shaping society? If poetry ought to have an instructional element, who – and for what purpose—shall it instruct? This seems to differ greatly from today, where poetry is primarily expressive, seen as an “art” requiring talent and lots of hard work. Does poetry continue to instruct us on how to think? Live? Engage with the world? How to see itself?

What strikes me the most about this piece is its beauty. Many times over I was caught up in Horace's imagery, his passion, his turns of phrase. It makes me wonder about the relationship between form and content. Did he think himself an example of his own aesthetic theory, especially given that his piece both delights and instructs?