Aristotle's Poetic :

THERESA JOY N. RAMBUYON

Introduction
 The Poetics must have been penned by Aristotle after he settled as
teacher and investigator in Athens about 335 B.C., and before he left
Athens in 324 B.C. It is a short treatise of twenty-six chapters and forty-
five pages, neither exhaustive and comprehensive, nor yet a coherent
study of the subject with which it deals. It does not seem to be a work
intended for publication.

It does not say much about Comedy, touches rather

briefly on the epic, and the renowned concept of
’Catharsis’ has not been fully developed or explained. It
is a lopsided work, concerned mainly with Greek
philosopher’s theory of tragedy.
Its Six Part
It is divisible into the following six parts :
1. Chapters I-V contain 2. The next 3. The next three
introductory remarks fourteen chapters chapters XX—XXII
on poetry, and its VI-XIX are are devoted to a
classification into devoted to Tragedy, discussion of poetic
different kinds, a definition is diction.
including tragedy and given, and its
comedy. Imitation is formative elements
said to be the basic are discussed.
principle common to all
arts.
It is divisible into the following six parts :
4. Chapter XXIII deals 5. In Chapters 6. Chapter XXV
with Narrative Poetry XXIV and XXVI examines the
and Tragedy. the epic is treated objections of critics
in brief and against poetry. The
compared with objections are also
tragedy. answered its Plan.
 Commenting on the scheme and plan of the Poetics,
Abercrombie writes that the subject matter of the
Poetics, as the book has come down to us, is not merely
restricted to Greek literature, but to certain kinds of
Greek literature. These are four in number ; and
Aristotle groups them in pairs, according to their
historical and aesthetic connections. He supposes poetry
to begin in two kinds, as the originating motive of all
poetry tended, by its very nature, to diverge in two
directions. Poetry begins either as heroic or as satiric
poetry : but out of heroic (or epic) poetry develops
tragedy, out of satiric comes comedy.
 Since then, the nature of poetry thus disposes itself
into two pairs or kinds, the principles valid for epic will,
with the proper modification, be valid also for tragedy,
those applicable to satire will be similarly applicable to
comedy. But Aristotle regarded the historically later
kind in each pair as a higher development of poetic art,
and as, therefore, requiring fuller discussion than the
earlier kind. Accordingly, his scheme is to work out the
theory of the later development and then apply it to the
earlier kind. But the Poetics, as we have it, is not
complete.
 The scheme of the discussion is unmistakably
indicated ; but actually we are only given the discussion
of tragedy, and the application of its results to epic
poetry. There can be no doubt that the original treatise
contained a second part, now lost, in which comedy and
satire were similarly treated.
Its Defects
The work is in the nature of class notes of an
intelligent teacher and has certain obvious
defects :
1. The handling of the subject is
disproportionate.

2. Lyric poetry has been practically ignored,

probably because (a) it was thought to
constitute an elementary stage in poetic
development, (b) it was supposed to belong to
the domain of music, and not poetry proper,
and (c) it was assimilated in the drama.
3. Most probably it is also for this last reason that descriptive
poetry—poetry of nature—has also been ignored.
4. Comedy and Epic have been slightly and cursorily treated.

5. The large part of the discussion is devoted to

tragedy, but here, too, the attention has been
focused on the nature of the plot, and the effects of
tragedy. Tragedy was regarded in the age as the
form in which all earlier poetry culminated and this
accounts for the excessive importance which
Aristotle attaches to it. In this respect, as in many
others, Aristotle was displaying contemporary
influences and limitations.
6. The style is telegrphic and highly concentrated, a
style for the initiated, i.e. for those who were already
familiar with the author’s terminology and thought.
Commenting on the style of the Poetics,
Abercrombie writes, “It is abrupt, disjointed,
awkwardly terse, as awkwardly digressive; essential
ideas are left unexplained ; inessential things are
elaborated. In short, it has all the defects of lecture
notes.” The Poetics is not self-explanatory and self-
sufficient. It must constantly be interpreted by the
other works of the Greek philosopher, more
specially, his Ethics, Politics, and the lost dialogue
on the Poet.
7. It is a work obviously not meant for
publication. There is irregularities and
anomalies, constant disgressions, omissions,
contradictions, repetitions, showing haste and
lack of revision.
8. Often there are signs of hesitation and
uncertainty in the use of terminology.
9. Aristotle’s theories are not wholly the result of
free and dispassionate reflection.’ His views are
conditioned by contemporary social and literary
influences. They are based on earlier theories’, and
are also conditioned by the fact that he had to
confute certain theories current at the time. The main
trend of his argument is determined by Plato’s attack
upon poetry. Aristotle takes up the challenge of Plato
at the end of Republic X, and proceeds to establish
the superiority of poetry over philosophy, and its
educational value. Much of it is in the nature of
special leading on behalf of poetry, and so has all the
defects of such an advocacy.
10. “Even to accomplished scholars the meaning is often
obscure.” This difficulty is further increased by the fact
that the average reader is not familiar with the Greek
language, its idiom, syntax and Grammar. Many of the
Greek words do not admit of literal translation into
English, and even scholars have gone astray. There is a
wide gulf between Greek and English usage, and hence
the wide divergence among the numerous English
translations of the Poetics. Interpretations differ from
critic to critic, to the great confusion and bewilderment of
the student.
11. Aristotle’s theories are based exclusively on Greek
poetry and drama with which he was familiar.
Its Many Merits:
A Great World Book
Despite these defects, the Poetics is an
epoch-making work, a work which is a
storehouse of literary theories, one of
the great, “world-books”, a book whose
influence has been continuous and
universal. Some of the more important
reasons of its greatness are :
1. Aristotle discards the earlier,
‘oracular’ method, in which critical
pronouncements were supposed to be
the result of some prophetic insight. He
also discards Plato’s dialectic method
(use of dialogue) as inadequate for
arriving at a positive and coherent
statement of truth.
2. The Greek Philosopher starts from concrete facts,
i.e. existing Greek poetry, and through analysis of
facts arrives at his principles and generalisations for
which, like a scientist, he claims no finality. His
methods are exploratory and tentative. It is an
attempt to arrive at the truth, rather than an assertion
of some preconceived notions. As Gilbert Murray
points out, “it is a first attempt made by a man of
astounding genuis to build up in the region of
creative art a rational order, like that he had already
established in the region of the physical sciences.”
3. Throughout, he studies poetry in relation to man.
He traces it back to the fundamental instincts of
human nature, i.e. the instinct of limitation and the
instinct of harmony. Thus his method of inquiry is
psychological. It is the first psycological study of the
poetic process. Tragedy he justifies by its emotional
effects.
4. In ‘The Poetics’, Aristotle also originates the
historical method of inquiry. He notes different
phases in the evolution of Greek poetry, and thus his
work becomes a starting point for subsequent literary
histories. He was the first to apply such methods to
literary problems.
5. Though Aristotle never claimed any finality, for
his principles, yet, says Atkins, “the miracle of ‘the
Poetics’ is that it contains so much that is of
permanent and universal interest. And this is so
because the literature on which it was based was no
artificial product of a sophisticated society, but the
natural expression of a race guided solely by what
was elemental in human nature.”
6. The work is full of ideas that are as true today as
they were when it was written, though there are
mingled with them certain other ideas which are
limited in their application, misleading or even
definitely wrong.
7. Aristotle’s greatness lies in the fact that he raised
the essential problems, though he was notalways
successful in providing solutions. ‘The Poetics’ is
thought-provoking ; it is a great irritant to thought.
Aristotle asks the right type of questions, and literary
theory has grown and advanced by seeking answers
to Aristotle’s questions
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