Horace's Definition of Poetry

Author(s): Tenney Frank

Source: The Classical Journal , Dec., 1935, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Dec., 1935), pp. 167-174
Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc. (CAMWS)

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 HORACE'S DEFINITION OF POETRY

By TENNEY FRANK
Johns Hopkins University

Poetry seems to be on the defensive, and much that went

verse in times past would now be said in prose. Horace's
definition of poetry, which included "utility" as well as emo
stimulus, is not now generally accepted. The range of poetic t
is in fact wide enough, but each critic insists on restricti
scope to conform to his own theory. On the one hand Bened
Croce has insisted that "the only proper object of aestheti
sideration today is the poetry that is nothing but poetry, or
is also called, pure poetry"; and there are many who hold to
doctrine. At the other extreme is found the group of se
minded missionaries, especially among the socialistic poet
artists, who will consider no art as of value unless it teach
ciety what it considers a salutary lesson. This school-from R
and Benton to the poets praised by the "Masses"-is havi
very remarkable vogue at present. Somewhere between these
ally approaching the former, are the imagists, the symbolis
impressionists, the abstractionists, the neo-Donne intellectua
the versifying devotees of the new psychology, and the obscu
ists. How the conflict will end in the far distant future does not
concern us greatly here.
Any age may have the right to make its own definitions. It has
no right, however, to impose those definitions on the past. We may
now prefer to think of autos, railway cars, and aeroplanes as vehi-
cles of transportation, but we can hardly presume to criticize past
generations for having called horse-drawn carriages and sedan
chairs by that name. If Homer and Lucretius, Dante, Horace, and
Vergil (as represented by the Georgics) included in their work
much matter that modern "pure poets" or the communistic group
167

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168 THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL

refuse to consider appropriate, that does not remove

the choir of the elect. What I wish, then, to say first
the critic must have some historical sense when he makes defini-
tions, and must show some regard for the age-old meanings of
words. As the practitioners of physical science today have lost all
consciousness of the meaning of scientia, endeavoring to exclude
from its range all "knowing" that is not "verifiable" by experiment
in a laboratory-thus suffocating a good term-so the critics of
poetry do violence to a venerable word in their endeavor to pro-
mote their own particular preferences.
Horace's definition and practice recognized a very wide range
for poetry, and therein he was historically sound. "Poetry" had
at first encompassed the whole field of self-expression, since it had
its origins before the day of writing, when it was important to
compose in verse that could readily be memorized. Homer's story,
Xenophanes' philosophic imaginings, Hesiod's theogony, Solon's
instructions, Sappho's lyrics, Aeschylus' dramas, and in fact every-
thing went into verse, and verse that was compact enough to serve
memory and imaginative enough to attract the interests of men.
These were not just versifiers; they were poets. The tradition that
poetry could express itself on any subject had thus been estab-
lished early, and that tradition was very much alive in Horace's
day. Not only did Hellenistic poets write national epics and sci-
entific treatises in verse, but at Rome Ennius and Naevius had
produced annalistic epics, Vergil had recently composed his
Georgics, and Lucretius his De Rerum Natura. To be sure, Aristotle
had long before seen that prose had developed skill in exposition
and narration which would fit it to be a worthy rival of poetry in
some of the fields, and his own definition of poetry emphasized
emotional delight above "utility." But the serious-minded, who
nevertheless refused to follow Plato in banishing Homer from the
ideal state, searched still for useful lessons in Homer-even if they
had to allegorize him to save his "usefulness," and provide an ex-
cuse for reading him.
I do not intend to say that Aristotle's view lost favor only be-
cause of a desire to make Homer seem "useful." Though Aristotle
had not misstated his case and though his emphasis was correct,

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 HORACE'S DEFINITION OF POETRY 169

some of his followers had gone too far in excluding did

ethical content from consideration. They cannot be ex
Man is too intricate a conglomerate of sensitivity, will, in
imagination, and fancy to permit artistic self-expression t
itself to any one narrow faculty. "Art for art's sake" le
much of a rich human nature out of the reckoning. There a
when sensuous poetry must be "a criticism of life," if a wh
is behind it. There are times when "beauty is truth, truth b
if the poet is so richly endowed that the two are integral
separable parts of his nature. There is as much wishful fee
aesthetics as there is wishful thinking in logic. The painte
posers, and poets who today insist on producing "pure
often thin-souled men and women who work dryly at a
formula that would never have appealed to men of rich
ments like Vergil, Shakespeare, Beethoven. The "pur
really does not exist any more than did that abstracti
economic man" whom our earlier economists used to p
Robinson Crusoe's island. What we need is a Gestalttheo
art that permits a whole soul to operate with all its wealth
and spirit. And, if the poet is a complete man, he is more
aesthetic sensitive plant: he responds to the needs and crie
fellow-men and of his society organized into a state, to th
ments of the intellect, to ethical values, and even to the thi
make for smiles. Has any critic the right to come now and
the generous definition of poetry down to a cheese-paring
that that must be the limit of a man's expression?
It may be in place to add that some of the incomplete art
from worthy experimenters who are frankly trying to disc
develop a new technique for later artists to use. It is no
their fault if a deluded public, having heard of the new expe
buys it as adequate work. A machinist may gain fame by in
a new spark-plug, but no one would call it an auto. Mu
passes for art in painting and poetry was only meant at
supply new and superior "gadgets" for a complete prod
a great work of art is more than a clever "gadget" or two.
In the Ars Poetica Horace makes rather short work of defi
He takes for granted that a poem must be a work of art (pu

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170 THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL

99), that the poet is full of knowledge and under

est et principium et fons, 309), and that he has t
ment of inspiration (divite vena, 409); then poetr
to charm or to instruct or preferably both (qui m
343). To appreciate the full connotation of thes
words one must refer to Horace's odes.
Horace was a part of his own people politically. His first serious
poem (Epode 16) was a rebel's manifesto issued to the whole of
Rome to cease fighting and to go in search of a land of peace. The
subject is not one for "pure poetry." Since it was an answer to
Vergil's "Messianic" eclogue which employed poetic imagery,
Horace too adopted allegory; and since to Horace beauty and truth
and morality were too intimately merged to separate, he fused his
moral purpose into an image of beauty. To separate these elements
would be like separating a rose into chlorophyl and pulp.
In the third book of Horace's odes there are at the beginning
two odes (3 and 5) that convey in references to the past the poet's
own conceptions of a great Rome to be. Prose could not have con-
veyed his meaning. The image of Juno in the council of the gods
endows his lesson with a sublime dignity that lifts it high above
direct statement, and the dramatic self-abasement of Regulus, a
powerful passage worthy of any tragedy, carries national morality
into the realms of deeply stirred emotions. Since Rome is so far
away, it may take an effort for us to feel intensely for Horace's
state, but that is not Horace's fault. If the state were ours we
should feel it, intensely.
On the theme most popular in the lyric poetry of the nineteenth
century Horace has little to say. He came to the task too late,
after the defeat of the enthusiasms that had made him risk his life
in civil rebellion. He began to write songs at the age when Catullus
stopped. He himself confesses that the fervor of his youth, con-
sule Planco, was gone. But few would care to raise the question
now, when the theme of love is seldom found in verse. Today at
least no one claims that it is the sole theme of lyric verse.
The many playful poems on his imagined loves, at times em-
bodying an attractive picture, at times playing in the realm of
"wit," he doubtless would assign to the class of dulce. Pulchra-

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 HORACE'S DEFINITION OF POETRY 171

satisfying the canons of art-they certainly are. Mack

delightful study of "Quis multa gracilis"(?) (Cl. Rev., 19
the just estimate: "The picture, the incident, you may s
and even vulgar, whether long ago on the Esquilin
Hampstead. Quite so. Out of such things the stuff of lif
Horace has distilled from it an essence, has immortalis
is what poetry and poetry alone can do." If one cou
charmingly one would say as much for "Lydia dic per o
matre pulchra," "Mater saeva Cupidinum," "Inte
"Vitas inuleo," "Ulla si juris," "Quid fles, Asterie
gratus eram tibi," "Miserarumst neque amori,"and a do
Artful structure, polished phrasing, quick fantasie
intaglios that please the eye, nice wit, a keen observati
moods, and-why not say it?-a gentleman's code,
They are not stirring verses, but they are richly condim
the stuff that makes poetry.
Again, the religious theme never reaches the heights
ity with him-the philosophic attitude toward life pr
mysticism that would make it possible. But genuine de
inspire real poetry in him, or, rather, he has the sympa
ination that can make the simple, honest faith of
neighbors worthy of a song. Wordsworth has not more
communicated the devotion of an honest creed than has H
"Rustica Phidyle," "Faune nympharum," "Montium c
"O fons Bandusiae," in all of which the poet is the spoke
peasant folk offering their humble prayers in all sinceri
of the state evoke no such genuine prayers from h
myths have a picturesque and whimsical side that c
engraver's burin. The ode to Mercury has not one le
devotional inspiration, but the cameo which he produce
eye to look at is exquisite work. The myth of Hypermn
story that was timely enough when the statues of the f
had recently been erected in the portico of the great pu
on the Palatine. The story is made to carry a surprisin
dox moral-an element of artistic surprise--but it is
capricious beautyof the myth, and placed ina personal
adds to the human interest. There are others of the ki

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 172 THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL

trace of devotional lyricism, but who would dare

not poetry?
Perhaps the moralizing odes do least to satisfy p
initions of poetry. It is customary now to blam
fact that in Pope's day versified "wisdom-literatu
into the body of English verse at the expense of
ing. He was in fact somewhat to blame. What
perhaps, is the fact that, having acquired skill
lyric forms of Sappho and Alcaeus, he went on
gnomic purposes these stanzas already packed wit
tions. Had he created for them a new couplet not
subjective lyricism, a serious cause of complaint m
removed. But again even these odes are often v
example, the ode written for the Boy Scouts (the
contains as much pure didacticism as any, but
anxious girl whose lover must face the Roman wa
the elation of spirit in the phrase
virtus recludens immeritis mori
caelum,

the Roman dignity of the line, now so unpopular,

dulce et decorumst pro patria mori,

all reveal a poet's intensity fusing ethical content into an imagina-

tive mold that makes the verses sing to the spirit. I hope the boys
had music for the lines. Inspiring national anthems are few; this
is one.
The most didactic of all is perhaps "Rectius vives" with its in-
sistence upon the Golden Mean-not a poetic doctrine. Every line
is instructive, every line is now a quotation. But every line is a
vivid picture as well:
Saepius ventis agitatur ingens
pinus, et celsae graviore casu
decidunt turres feriuntque summos
fulgura montes.

One can read it for its imagery and inspired phrasing with such
delight that its protreptic quality vanishes. A second reading is
necessary to catch its purpose. This is teaching, but the teacher is

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 HORACE'S DEFINITION OF POETRY 173

a poet. Today we prefer to separate the two functions; bu

Man is "a social animal," which means that morals pen
deeply into his fabric as instincts. This poem provides
something more than mere decorated moralizing. The t
the beauty well up inseparably. I admit that Horace is not
so well compounded. When hunks of ethics emerge a
moments and the honey is obviously smeared on extr
one may well object. "Nullus argento" very nearly ans
description. But in general Horace is a man in whom m
are permeated with beauty.
The extreme of the didactic impulse today is found in th
communistic verse that has gained almost as great a vogu
the "depression" as the painting that came from Russia v
into the most luxurious structure of New York. This is doubtless a
passing phase. In Auden and Spender this impulse has produced
some fervor and not a little imaginative suggestiveness. It has
warped the logic of one of our most gifted critics; and in its barest
forms it has resorted too often to blasphemy and four-letter Anglo-
Saxon words of cloacal origin to appeal to normal human beings.
One notes with some surprise that Horace occasionally had moods
of this same kind. If one cared to translate "Intactis opulentior"
(III, 24), his bitterest satire on dishonest luxury, or "Non ebur
neque aureum" (11, 18) into blunt Menckenese, the parallelism
would be readily apparent. But in these two odes Horace is merely
trying to be a reformer. The lyric mold is here out of place; satirical
hexameters would have done the work more fittingly.
If one were to survey the wide range of Horace's conception of
the utile in song, one might speak of the magnificent rhetoric of
"Tyrrhena regum," worthily Englished by Dryden's "Happy the
man, and happy he alone," of the exhortation to the prince to
restore the fallen temples (III, 6), the ode on "compensation"
(III, 1), "Tu ne quaesieris" with its advice against astrological
trumpery, "Nullam, Vare, sacra," warning against orgiastic emo-
tionalism in religion, "Aequam memento" which recalls what
roses are meant for, "Eheu fugaces," "Iam pauca aratro," "Otium
divos," and many others that prove the poet's interest in his fel-
low-men. But it is not my purpose to list and classify. My object

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174 THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL

was simply to recall once more the fact that Ho

theory regarding the function of poetry, that h
through all the normal interests of a living, sen
eyed observer of nature and human nature, that
he justified his sound definition of what poet
treat, that in fact he was a poet for men and no
critics.

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