University of Southern Denmark Studies in Literature - 57: Ut Pictura Poesis Tradition English NeoClassical Landscape Poetry

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The connection between poetry and painting dates back to Antiquity, as both arts engage the intellect and the eye. Horace's Ars poetica (circa 20 B.C.) succinctly encapsulates this relationship with the phrase ut pictura poesis. Critics later extracted this idea from its original context, which emphasized the viewer's appropriate distance from a work. In the early 1700s, the Neo-Classical movement in English literature revived interest in Horace's work, leading to numerous translations and diverse interpretations of his maxim. Among these, English Neo-Classical poets particularly embraced landscape description, despite facing challenges from the strict Neo-Classical canon and traditional pastoral forms. This book explores the evolution of ut pictura poesis from a mere topos to a distinct genre: the Neo-Classical landscape poem. Such poems typically feature familiar elements visible to a beholder who also serves as the narrator. Beneath the surface, they suggest a low-key social analogy, hinting at an idyllic, unspoiled society. However, there is an underlying anxiety about preserving this ideal. In James Thomson's landscapes from the 1720s, one can sense the emerging attitudes toward nature that would later be echoed in the works of Wordsworth and Keats.