Final answer:
According to Horace, poetry's two main purposes are to delight and instruct the audience, providing both entertainment and moral or philosophical education.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to Horace (65-8 BCE), the renowned Roman poet, poetry serves two main purposes. Horace's treatise, Ars Poetica, provides crucial insights into his beliefs about the nature and function of poetry. In this important work, he articulates that poetry should both delight and instruct its audience. By capturing these dual aims, Horace posits that poetry must entertain readers, offering them pleasure, while concurrently imparting moral and philosophical wisdom, educating them through themes and narratives.
To illustrate this, Horace uses the phrase '“Poets, if they are to be successful, should provide both pleasure and instruction”, suggesting that successful poetry engages the reader on an aesthetic level and also conveys important life lessons and truths. Poems, therefore, become more than just artistic expressions; they serve as a medium for sharing experiences, insights, and wisdom, often through evocative and emotionally stirring language.
The dual purpose of poetry is further exemplified in the diversity of its forms throughout history—from the epic tales that preserved cultural stories to the satirical works that criticized and entertained. In all cases, poetry's function to both entertain and educate remains a timeless principle rooted in Horace's literary philosophy.