payment page
Study Tools
Overview
Poetics was written by Aristotle in the 4th century BCE
. In it, Aristotle proposes to discuss poetry, which he defines as a means of mimesis, or imitation, by means of language, rhythm, and harmony. In particular, Aristotle focuses his discussion on tragedy, which uses dramatic, rather than narrative, form, and deals with agents who are better than ourselves.Although Poetics is in a very different category from works Aristotle on topics such as ethics, logic, and physics, it has exercised a great deal of influence on subsequent literary theory, particularly in the Renaissance. Unfortunately ater interpreters turned many of Aristotle’s suggestions into strict laws, restricting the flexibility of drama in ways that Aristotle would not have anticipated.
Read the free full text of the work, the overall summary, and the overall analysis of Poetics. Or, learn more by studying SparkNotes guides to other works by Aristotle.
