Explore the timeless wisdom of one of Rome's greatest poets with this beautiful edition of Horace's Epistles and Ars Poetica. Filled with profound insights into human nature and the art of poetry, this book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the foundations of Western literature. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Ross Kilpatrick discusses how the three epistles are related, what the roles of the three addressees are, how the themes and views expressed relate to them, and whether there is in the Ars Poetica a single unifying theme.

This is the first of Professor Brink's three-volume commentary on Horace's literary epistles, originally published in 1963. The volumes' chief focus is the primary source of Horatian literary criticism: the Epistula ad Pisones, known as the Ars Poetica to most ancient and modern readers. Volume I of Horace on Poetry looks at the structure of the Ars Poetica, Neoptolemus and literary criticism, and the criticism and satire of Horace. Professor Brink's overriding argument is that the common dismissal of the Ars as a disorderly piece fails to take into account Horace's architectonic style. For Brink, this disorder is itself part of an intrinsic poetic design. The complete three-volume commentary constitutes one of the fullest scholarly commentaries on Horace's critical writing. It will continue to be of great value to all with an interest in this much-debated subject.