Ars Poetica
E174217
Ars Poetica is a famous 1926 lyric poem by Archibald MacLeish that meditates on the nature and purpose of poetry, encapsulated in its dictum that "a poem should not mean but be."
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Ars Poetica canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1520056 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ars Poetica Context triple: [Archibald MacLeish, notableWork, Ars Poetica]
-
A.
The Poet
"The Poet" is a seminal essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson that explores the nature, role, and visionary power of the poet in society and in expressing universal truths.
-
B.
The Poet
The Poet is a reflective, storytelling character in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s narrative poem collection "Tales of a Wayside Inn," representing the voice of the poet among the gathered guests.
-
C.
Lament for the Makaris
Lament for the Makaris is a Middle Scots poem by William Dunbar that mournfully reflects on the mortality of poets and the inevitability of death.
-
D.
The Cantos
The Cantos is Ezra Pound’s long, unfinished modernist epic poem that weaves together history, politics, economics, and literature in a highly allusive, fragmented style.
-
E.
The Future Poetry
The Future Poetry is a critical work by Indian philosopher and yogi Sri Aurobindo that explores the spiritual evolution of poetry and envisions a higher, more intuitive poetic expression for the future.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ars Poetica Target entity description: Ars Poetica is a famous 1926 lyric poem by Archibald MacLeish that meditates on the nature and purpose of poetry, encapsulated in its dictum that "a poem should not mean but be."
-
A.
The Poet
"The Poet" is a seminal essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson that explores the nature, role, and visionary power of the poet in society and in expressing universal truths.
-
B.
The Poet
The Poet is a reflective, storytelling character in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s narrative poem collection "Tales of a Wayside Inn," representing the voice of the poet among the gathered guests.
-
C.
Lament for the Makaris
Lament for the Makaris is a Middle Scots poem by William Dunbar that mournfully reflects on the mortality of poets and the inevitability of death.
-
D.
The Cantos
The Cantos is Ezra Pound’s long, unfinished modernist epic poem that weaves together history, politics, economics, and literature in a highly allusive, fragmented style.
-
E.
The Future Poetry
The Future Poetry is a critical work by Indian philosopher and yogi Sri Aurobindo that explores the spiritual evolution of poetry and envisions a higher, more intuitive poetic expression for the future.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
lyric poem
ⓘ
poem ⓘ |
| author | Archibald MacLeish ⓘ |
| circulation | literary magazines and poetry anthologies ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| criticalReception |
frequently studied in literature courses
ⓘ
widely anthologized ⓘ |
| famousFor | dictum "a poem should not mean but be" ⓘ |
| form | short lyric ⓘ |
| genre |
lyric poetry
ⓘ
metapoetry ⓘ |
| hasSection |
final assertion of being over meaning
ⓘ
imagery of stone and globed fruit ⓘ imagery of the moon and leaning grasses ⓘ |
| includedIn | collections of Archibald MacLeish's poems ⓘ |
| influenced |
20th-century poetic theory
ⓘ
discussions of "art for art's sake" ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Horace's Ars Poetica
ⓘ
linked to:
Ars Poetica
classical ars poetica tradition ⓘ |
| keyLine | "A poem should not mean / But be" ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryDevice |
allusion
ⓘ
imagery ⓘ metaphor ⓘ paradox ⓘ repetition ⓘ symbolism ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | Modernism ⓘ |
| medium | printed text ⓘ |
| meter | free verse ⓘ |
| notableQuotation | "A poem should not mean but be" ⓘ |
| openingLine | "A poem should be palpable and mute" ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1926 ⓘ |
| subjectMatter | definition of poetry ⓘ |
| subjectOf |
academic lectures on poetics
ⓘ
numerous critical essays ⓘ |
| theme |
aesthetics of art
ⓘ
nature of poetry ⓘ poetic expression ⓘ purpose of poetry ⓘ |
| titleLanguage | Latin ⓘ |
| titleMeaning |
"The Art of Poetry"
ⓘ
linked to:
Ars Poetica
|
| tone |
didactic
ⓘ
meditative ⓘ |
| topic |
autonomy of the poem
ⓘ
relationship between meaning and being in poetry ⓘ |
| workPeriod | early career of Archibald MacLeish ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Ars Poetica Description of subject: Ars Poetica is a famous 1926 lyric poem by Archibald MacLeish that meditates on the nature and purpose of poetry, encapsulated in its dictum that "a poem should not mean but be."
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.