- All's Well That Ends Well
- Antony and Cleopatra
- As You Like It
- The Comedy of Errors
- Coriolanus
- Cymbeline
- Hamlet
- Henry IV, Part 1
- Henry IV, Part 2
- Henry V
- Henry VI, Part 1
- Henry VI, Part 2
- Henry VI, Part 3
- Henry VIII
- Julius Caesar
- King John
- King Lear
- Love's Labor's Lost
- A Lover's Complaint
- Macbeth
- Measure for Measure
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Othello
- Pericles
- The Rape of Lucrece
- Richard II
- Richard III
- Romeo and Juliet
- Shakespeare's Sonnets
- The Taming of the Shrew
- The Tempest
- Timon of Athens
- Titus Andronicus
- Troilus and Cressida
- Twelfth Night
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- Venus and Adonis
- The Winter's Tale
This quote occurs during Aristotle’s detailed account of the history of poetry, and it is significant because it implies that poetry is a natural and inevitable human creation. In the following chapter, Aristotle argues that human beings have a natural proclivity for imitation and for music, which are both reflected in the creation of poetry. Poetry imitates people and actions, and it does so in rhythmic language and song. Thus, as Aristotle implies here, the creation of poetry is, on both accounts, “natural.”
The belief that humans have a natural instinct for music was also shared by Aristotle’s teacher and…