What is ars poetica?

While on its surface, "Ars Poetica" is quite simple, there are many complexities in the poem that the reader will have to grapple with to understand its essence. The title of the poem is borrowed from Horace (a lyric poet of ancient Rome), and it means "the art of poetry." The title hence sets a clear precedent for what is to follow in the poem; namely, an official—though poetic—manifesto about what the speaker thinks of poetry as an art. As a modernist manifesto, the poem does not really adhere to any one set of conventions, but alternates in its use of rhyme, meter, syntax, punctuation and grammar.