Poetics

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

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

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.

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 whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end.

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.