Ut pictura poesis

 Ars Poetica
             Archibald MacLeish                                   

A poem should be palpable and mute

As a globed fruit,

Dumb

As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone

Of casement ledges where the moss has grown--

A poem should be wordless

As the flight of birds.

A poem should be motionless in time

As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases

Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves.

Memory by memory the mind--

A poem should be motionless in time

As the moon climbs.

A poem should be equal to:

Not true.

For all the history of grief

An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love

The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea--

A poem should not mean

But be.

Line	Latin	English translation
15-16	purpureus pannus	purple patch
23	simplex dumtaxet et unum	simple and single
25-26	Brevis esse laboro, / obscurus fio	I try to be brief and become obscure.
73	Res gestae regumque ducumque et tristia bella	Histories of kings and generals and the sorrows of war
102	Si vis me flere, dolendum est / primum ipsi tibi	If you want me to weep, you must feel sorrow first.
139	Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus	The mountains labor and bring forth a ridiculous mouse.
147-48	ab ovo . . . in medias res	from the beginning . . . into the middle of the action
268-69	Vos exemplaria Graeca / noctuma versate manu, versate diuma	Review the Greek models night and day.
309-10	Scribendi recte sapere est principium et fons. / Rem tibi Socraticae poterunt ostendere cartae.	Knowing is the first principle and fountainhead of writing well;/ The writings of Socrates can teach the matter to you.
333	aut prodesse volunt aut delectare poetae	Poets strive to either profit or delight.
343	miscuit utili dulci	He [the poet] mixes the useful with the sweet.
359	bonus dormitat Homerus	Even Homer nods.
361	Ut pictura poesis	A poem is like a picture.
372-73	mediocris esse poetis / non homines, non di, non concessere colmnae.	Not men nor gods nor the booksellers allow poets to be mediocre.
471	minxerit in patrios cineres	He urinated on his father's ashes.

Source:  http://people.brandeis.edu/~rind/eng171/Horace_tags.html