--A poem is not alone any work or composition of the poet's in
many or few verses; but even one verse alone
sometimes
makes a perfect
poem.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
????, a maker, or a feigner: his art, an art of imitation or feigning;
expressing the life of man in fit measure, numbers, and harmony,
according to Aristotle; from the word ??????, which signifies to make or
feign. Hence he is called a poet, not he which writeth in measure only,
but that feigneth and formeth a fable, and writes things like the truth.
For the fable and fiction is, as it were, the form and soul of any
poetical work or poem.
_What mean_, _you by a Poem_?
_Poema_.
--A poem is not alone any work or composition of the poet's in
many or few verses; but even one verse alone
sometimes
makes a perfect
poem.
As when AEneas hangs up and consecrates the arms of Abas with this
inscription:--
"AEneas haec de Danais victoribus arma." {136a}
And calls it a poem or carmen. Such are those in Martial:--
"Omnia, Castor, emis: sic fiet, ut omnia vendas." {136b}
And--
"Pauper videri Cinna vult, et est pauper." {136c}
_Horatius_.--_Lucretius_.--So were Horace's odes called Carmina, his lyric
songs. And Lucretius designs a whole book in his sixth:--
"Quod in primo quoque carmine claret." {136d}
_Epicum_.--_Dramaticum_.--_Lyricum_.--_Elegiacum_.--_Epigrammat_.--And
anciently all the oracles were called Carmina; or whatever sentence was
expressed, were it much or little, it was called an Epic, Dramatic,
Lyric, Elegiac, or Epigrammatic poem.
