Art of Poetry: Horace's view of the Artist as a Craftsman

Horace was the classicist who established the classical sets of belief rules and orders, restraint and correct expression. He wished that the writer should choose correct and right words; that he should use meters maintaining their appropriateness; that he should be able to choose a proper subject; that he should make use of proper poetic diction; and that he should follow the rules of ancient arts.

Alexandrian influence can be noted in his demand for careful workmanship and polish and order and organization. Moreover, for that he says an artist is always a craft man who using his architectural genius maintains decorum and ‘urbanity’ in his work of art.

For Horace, a writer must choose a subject within his power and appropriate to his gifts; he must say at any given moment what needs to be said, and no more. He must choose vocabulary, meter and form that are right for his subject, whether noble, exciting, erotic or joyous. He warns against extravagant implausibility and incongruities. Indeed the prevailing emphasis throughout is on the need for consistency, coherence and seemliness. It is the writer's business to refine and polish his text that the highest standards of propriety and artistry are maintained. However, Horace demands a craft man’s skill in an artist; he does not utterly neglect the role of natural talent in art. In fact, he is insisting on a complementary relationship between learned artistry and genius.

His Art for poetry can also he read as a useful advice to the perspective writers. It remained an influential document or a Bible for esp. Boileau, Pope, Eliot and Fyre. He equates poetry with painting. In poetry, words are like various colors that are put beautifully. He focuses on decorum in poetry i.e. the rightness of each part to the whole. There should be the harmony of each parts of poetry to the whole. These ideas become laws for neo- classical writers. He outlines the following points to be in good poetry so that the pragmatic effect of poetry can be achieved.

Unity and simplicity of forms:
Simplicity refers to lucidity that is everyone understands. Unity is the perfect combination of beginning, middle and ending. Everything should be matching so that it creates decorum and the sense of propriety. (Correctnes + Suitable)

Form and content matched:
The style should be proper. By proper, he means that the trivial and serious matters should not be written in grand style. And in the same way, the treatment of serious matter should not be in trivial form. Therefore, from and content should be matched. Poets and painters should not create monotony by showing dolphin in the forest and elephant in the sea. Such unnatural combination fails to teach and give the delight.

Appropriate use of words:
The words come and go like the leaves of a tree. The words need to be used in proper places according to the nature of the words. Cliché should not be used and the language of common people should be magnified. Poets should use familiar words in quite different way. If characters want to speak words then it is okay but it should have its origin in Greek.

Appropriateness of meter:
Horace prefers Virgil's opinion that to follow Homer is to follow nature. Homer says it is appropriate to use hexameter in epic, iambic pentameter in tragedy and hexameter and iambic pentameter in elegy.

Consistency of characters:
The characters should be consistent and life like. His views on characters are identical to Aristotle. Character traits should be based on age, there should not be any exaggeration, that is which is not possible to the character must not be presented. Therefore, characters should be convincing, probable and consistent.

Style (Starting and ending):
The writer can take one of the following techniques to present the content.

Prolepsis (flash back): What happened before the action takes place.
Analepsis (foreshadowing): What happens next to on going action.
Anachronistic (random): Mixture of all techniques.

Whatever the technique there is, the end of poetry should teach and delight. To teach actions should be physical than verbal because whatever people see, they are likely to believe. Therefore, it is better to perform everything. But scenes of murder, violence etc should not be shown on the stage. Deux ex machine (performing of God on the stage) is to be hidden.