Quotes from book

Poetics

“Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.”

“For the purposes of poetry a convincing impossibility is preferable to an unconvincing possibility.”

“A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in language … not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.”

“But the greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances.”

“Poetry demands a man with a special gift for it, or else one with a touch of madness in him.”

“A whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end.”