A poet's object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.


Aristotle: The Poetics: "Longinus": On the Sublime. Demetrius: On Style (ed. 1927)

Aristotle Quotes

A poet's object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is...

A poet's object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is...

A poet's object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is...

A poet's object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is...