Aristotle’s Poetics is the earliest surviving work of Greek dramatic theory and first
extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory. In this text Aristotle offers
an account of ποιητική, which refers to poetry and more literally “the poetic art,”
deriving from the term for “poet; author; maker,” ποιητής. Aristotle divides the art
of poetry into verse drama (to include comedy, tragedy, and the satyr play), lyric
poetry, and epic. The genres all share the ...