Comparative Poetics: Horace of Rome and Nizami of Samarghand

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research article

Author

Deparetment

Abstract

There are striking similarities between the opinions of Horace, the famous poet of ancient Rome, in his treatise "The Art of Poetry" and some of the Nizami Arouzi’s ideas in his book "Four Discourses" - the second article about poetry. This paper examines these similarities. However, the purpose of this paper is to explain Horace's opinion and its adaptation to Arouzi’s perspective. It should be noted that the artistic and critical views of Iranian poets and writers are subject to certain rhetorical principles, which may have differences with the intellectual and rhetorical principles of Western poets and writers. Therefore, this research only seeks to discover the common aspects that can be seen in these two works. Horace's treatise "The Art of Poetry" is, in fact, a letter written in literary criticism. Horace expresses his views and opinions about poetry in this poetic treatise. According to the findings of this paper, Horace and Arouzi have three aspects in common: a) poetic techniques can be learned and acquired, b) average poetry dies before its composer, and c) familiarity with the literary past is a necessity for new poets. Although Horace's "The Art of Poetry" and Arouzi's "Four Discourses" are very far apart in terms of time and space, they sometimes have striking similarities in terms of theory, thought, practice and expression. It is clear that there is no question of the prosodic influence of Horace, but it should be considered as a prosodic similarity.

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Persian Language and Literature

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 14 September 2026

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History

  • Receive Date: 08 June 2026
  • Revise Date: 02 September 2026
  • Accept Date: 14 September 2026
  • Publish Date: 14 September 2026

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