Ars Poetica
John Conington's verse translation (1869).
The Ars Poetica ('The Art of Poetry,' or Epistle to the Pisos, c. 10 BCE) is Horace's verse letter on the principles of writing poetry, and among the most influential works of literary criticism ever written. Its maxims—decorum, unity of design, 'ut pictura poesis,' the aim to instruct and delight ('prodesse et delectare'), and the long labor of revision—shaped European poetics from the Renaissance through the eighteenth century. It is translated into verse by John Conington (1869).
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