And Lucretius designs a whole book in his sixth:-
"Quod in primo quoque carmine claret." {136d}
Epicum.--Dramaticum.--Lyricum.--Elegiacum.--Epigrammat.--And
anciently all the oracles were called Carmina; or whatever sentence
was expressed, were it much or little, it was called an Epic,
Dramatic, Lyric, Elegiac, or Epigrammatic poem.
But how differs a Poem from what we call Poesy?
Poesis.--Artium regina.--Poet. differentiae.--Grammatic.--Logic.--
Rhetoric.--Ethica.--A poem, as I have told you, is the work of the
poet; the end and fruit of his labour and study. Poesy is his skill
or craft of making; the very fiction itself, the reason or form of
the work. And these three voices differ, as the thing done, the
doing, and the doer; the thing feigned, the feigning, and the
feigner; so the poem, the poesy, and the poet. Now the poesy is the
habit or the art; nay, rather the queen of arts, which had her
original from heaven, received thence from the Hebrews, and had in
prime estimation with the Greeks transmitted to the Latins and all
nations that professed civility. The study of it (if we will trust
Aristotle) offers to mankind a certain rule and pattern of living
well and happily, disposing us to all civil offices of society.
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