Ars poetica—Latin for “the poetic art”—is a genre of poetry that addresses the process of writing verse. Writing poems about writing poems dates back to the Latin lyric poet Horace (65 BCE-8 BCE). The genre actually takes its name from his towering poem “Ars Poetica” (19 BCE), Latin for “The Art of Poetry.” Over time, poets as varied as Alexander Pope, Lord Byron, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Ezra Pound have examined in verse the process of writing poetry itself.

In the ars poetica tradition, poets examine the rewards and agonies of writing and the delight and surprise they find in crafting poems. These poems are not how-to manuals that offer writerly advice, but instead they pull back the curtain to hint at how a poem comes into being to capture the complexity of human experience.

In “In My Craft or Sullen Art,” Dylan Thomas reveals how and under what circumstances he writes poetry. Dismissing motivations like fame, money, self-promotion, and immortality, he instead imagines his ideal readers as lovers who are quite possibly unaware of his existence—a contradiction that goes against traditional expectations of poetic purpose.