Most of the contents of poetic art are the basic concepts of Horace and critics since the Renaissance, but boileau restated these concepts according to the rational scale. The first chapter begins with a clear meaning: first of all, you must love reason: May all your articles always gain value and light only by reason.
Boileau's The Art of Poetry is an important work of classical literary theory. It regards rationality as the highest standard of creation and criticism, and comprehensively and systematically expounds the aesthetic viewpoints and creative principles of classicism. This book is written in Alexander's poetic style and is divided into four parts. The first chapter is an overview, describing the aesthetic principles of classicism. The second chapter discusses minor poems, such as pastoral poems, ode poems and elegies. The third chapter discusses the main poetic styles, such as tragedy and historical drama. The fourth chapter puts forward some moral suggestions for writers.
In the book, he thinks that rationality is the highest value of art, and he regards learning from nature as the basic task of literature and art. Nature here refers to natural humanity. According to the feudal hierarchical concept, he classified literary genres, affirming that epics and tragedies are advanced, comedies are low, and folk genres such as fables and burlesque are even excluded.
He advocated imitating the literary works of ancient Greece and Rome, and believed that ancient works had reached perfection, and imitating the ancients was a shortcut to success. This work has far-reaching influence and has become an important work in the history of European literary theory. His The Art of Poetry is regarded as the theoretical code of French classicism.
The Art of Poetry summarizes the aesthetic principles and creative experience of French classicism in the17th century. "It has a great influence on the time and future generations. Boileau was thus awarded the title of "classical legislator".
The representative of classical literary theory is boileau, whose The Art of Poetry is called the classical Koran by Pushkin. In Povalo's literary theory, Povalo inherited the tradition of Aristotle and Horace, and concentrated on expounding many principled views of classicism in the art of poetry.
With Aristotle's Poetics and Horace's Poetics as the authorities, boileau re-expounded a set of literary principles. However, the rigidity, excessive intellectualization and preaching of classicism have been fully criticized by romanticism. However, without boileau's work, it is doubtful whether modern aesthetics can be established. There was no Renaissance aesthetics before him, and there was no important person or thought after him that had nothing to do with him.
Boileau's Poem says: Only truth is beautiful, and only truth is lovely. Reason is truth and beauty. Rationality is human nature, so literature and art should be reasonable. Reason is nature, so obeying reason is consistent with imitating nature, but his nature is not an external thing and object, but a universal human nature. This kind of human nature is not the innate sensibility of human beings, but a transcendental conscience, that is, rationality.
Reason is also a conscience, which is a universal human nature. Classicism is rationality, and imitating classicism is to express universal human nature by the best means that people have found. Rationality means standardization, appropriateness, harmony and elegance. Boileau opposes vulgarity, affectation and vitriol, and advocates abandoning extreme individualism trapped in low taste and building a new literary era with strict order.
Boileau always uses the most perfect conceptual standards in poetry to evaluate his works. Boigues's famous saying: A beautiful word is beautiful because it is said by everyone, but the way it is said is vivid, subtle and novel.