Archibald MacLeish's "Ars Poetica" is one of the most well-known poems by a now-imperfectly remembered poet. Although a giant in his own lifetime—poet, statesman, and promoter of culture and the arts—his works are not often recalled beyond this specific, much-anthologized poem. Even still, MacLeish's "Ars Poetica" is perhaps one of the most accessible and interesting poems in this vein in the world today. Ranging across multiple aspects of a poetry's qualities and impacts, it also serves as a landmark poem in the Modernist movement, effectively serving as a manifesto for a new generation of poets.
This lesson also engages with "Ars Poetica" by the ancient Roman poet Horace, which offers...
