Accuracy in the depiction of literary and dramatic characters is another important component of Horace's vision for poetry and instruction. Not paranoid of presenting imperfect or ignoble characters in poetic dramas, Horace instructs writers to present accurate characterizations of the characters in classical literature:
Describe Achilles, as Achilles was,
Impatient, rash, inexorable, proud
Scorning all Judges, all Law but Arms;
Medea must be all Revenge and Blood,
Ino all Tears, Ixion all Deceit
Io must wander, and Oreftes mourn...
(Art of Poetry, Lns 145-149)
Presumably, Horace believes that audience will not seek to emulate ignoble characters, but rather would avoid repeating their mistakes. Unlike Socrates, Horace appears to have greater confidence in the inherent virtue of mankind. He doesn't appear to believe that man is easily corrupted or influenced by negative literary examples.
Horace responds to the Platonic problem of imitation by focusing the discussion about poetry on poetry's more positive attributes. For Horace, poetic imitation is like a subterranean passage way that provides entrance into the enchanting world of Greek and Roman mythology. It is in the context of this fictional realm of myth and wonder that Horace desires to enlighten his audience.
During the In the sixteenth century, the period known as the High Renaissance, the English poet Sir Philip Sidney further developed and explored the provocative concept of poetry and its influence on human thought and behavior. Sidney, like many of his contemporaries participated in an exciting literary retrospective: the revival of Greco- Roman classicism. Drawing inspiration from the inexhaustible wells of classical philosophy and knowledge, the English knight became poetry's greatest champion. In his famous work A Defence of Poetry, Sidney valiantly defends the reputation and honor of poetry. Exploring the intriguing idea of Horace, Sidney expounds on poetry's ability to "teach and delight":
This purifying of wit- this enriching of the memory, enabling of judgment, and enlarging of conceit- which commonly call learning, under what name soever it come forth, or to what immediate end soever it be directed the final end is to lead and draw us to as high a perfection as our degenerate souls, made worse by their clayey lodgings, can be capable of. ( Sidney, 28)
Because of poetry's incredible ability to teach, it has the potential of transforming human character for the better. In this transformation, the mind is renewed and moves progressively towards perfection.
Another aspect of poetry that Spencer explores is its ability to translate philosophical truths into poetic pictures. Far superior than the discipline of philosophy, poetry is able to translate abstract and often enigmatic concepts into "perfect pictures" for instruction:
.....for whatsoever the philosopher saith be done, the poet giveth a perfect picture of it in someone by whom he presupposeth it was done, so as he coupleth the general notion with the particular example. A perfect picture I say, for he yieldeth to the powers of the mind an image of that whereof the philosopher bestoeth but a wordish description, which does neither strike, pierce nor possess the sight of the soul so much as the other doth. (Sidney, 32)
Sidney extols the powerful effects of vivid poetic images that have a deep impact on the human soul. Penetrating into the deep recesses of the human soul, poetry is able to successfully communicate profound philosophical truths. Interestingly, the profound idea of poetic pictures is not original with Sidney. Horace specially introduced this concept in his celebrated work The Art of Poetry.
In Sidney's great apology, the poet is not content with simply making bold claims of poetry's ability to profoundly shape human thought and behavior. He is deeply concerned with explaining how poetry is able to achieve such effects. As Sidney explains, this is achieved through the poet's creation of superior, golden realities:
Only the poet, disdaining to be tied to any such subjection, lifted up with the vigor of his own invention, doth grow in effect another nature, in making things either better than nature bringeth forth, or, quite anew, forms such as never were in nature, as the Heroes, Demigods, Cyclops, Chimeras, Furies, and such like: so as he goeth hand in hand within nature, not enclosed within the warrant of her gifts, but freely ranging only within the zodiac of his wit. Nature never set forth the earth in such rich tapestries divers poets have done; neither wit so pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet-smelling flowers, nor whatsoever else may make the too much loved earth more lovely. Her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden. (Sidney, 23)