Analysis of Ars Poetica, part 5

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Horace has given a very important and useful account of the usage and coinage of words. He says that the poet should choose the words very carefully and wisely. He should use those words which could improve and enhance his diction. He should select one word and drop another word according to his own taste. The poet should try to clear the meaning of a particular word which he has used at a given place. The poet also has the license to create new words. The condition put by Horace is that these words should be Greek in origin. Many great poets in the past had created new words and had been very successful. There should not be any discrimination on the basis of the ability of the writer. If a poet of high stature was given the licence to coin new words then so should be the case with a poet of small stature. New words continue to be coined and with the passage of time, old words perish. A person should not be shocked by such a thing because it only reveals the fact of life. Everything which takes birth has to perish one day whether it be a great ruler, philosopher, orator or it be any literary words. Everything depends upon the custom of time. Time is omnipotent. It can bring back the most obsolete words back into use and it could also make a word which is in vogue out of use.

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