Notes on Poetic Quality in Aristotle

Abstract

This article analyzes Aristotle’s conception of poetic quality through the lens of the aesthetic properties of language in the Poetics. Building on the well-known assertion that beauty lies in proportion and order, we observe that these criteria clearly apply to spatial or narrative structures —such as an organism or a dramatic plot— but not directly to the linear sequence of language. On the linguistic level, aesthetic qualities do not derive primarily from metrical or rhythmic order, although these may contribute a musical component, but rather from lexical selection and from the devices that produce strangeness or deviation from ordinary usage. In this sense, the study examines the various resources that Aristotle identifies in poetic diction —metaphor, rare words, lengthening, dialectal forms, or other variants— and their role in producing language that is simultaneously clear and elevated. The analysis shows that Aristotle’s theory of lexis aims to balance intelligibility and estrangement, avoiding both the triviality of everyday language and excessive obscurity. In this way, poetic quality arises from a strategy of lexical selection and combination that allows the discourse to take on a distinctive and aesthetically effective form within the dramatic composition.