Poetics

… It is clear that the poet's task is not to recount what has happened, but what could happen – that is, to deal with what is probable as a possibility and necessity. The difference between the historian and the poet is not that one uses verse and the other prose: the works of Herodotus could be put into verse, and it would still be history in verse, just as in prose. The difference is that the historian relates what has actually happened, while the poet relates what could happen. Therefore poetry is more philosophical and more serious than history. Poetry expresses universal truths, while history formulates specific statements about the nature of an individual. Universal truths concern what would benefit a person and what they would say or do in accordance with their possibility and need.