Introduction to the Poetics

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‘The Poetics’ written by Aristotle is a world book. It is a treatise on literary criticism which contains rules for poetry as valid for Shakespeare and Milton as it was for Homer and Sophocles. The Poetics is the world’s first book on literary criticism which came into being in about 330 BC. At the end of the fifteenth century it was translated into various languages. The book has survived such a long period of time because it is a unique piece of critical work written by a peculiarly acute, methodical and scientific critic. Even after so many years of his origin, The Poetics continues to be famous and is prescribed in the schools from California to Kolkata.

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