these rules. They also use poetic language and rhythm. The stories can be simple or full of twists. They both try to give pleasure by telling sad and serious stories.

Length Matters: Epic poetry is longer and uses narration. It can show many events at once. Tragedy is shorter and acted on stage. It focuses on one main action. Epics like “The Odyssey” cover years, but tragedies like “Oedipus Rex” happen in a day. Aristotle says tragedy’s compact structure makes it more intense. Epics can feel scattered because they include side stories. A unified plot, as in tragedy, keeps the audience engaged. Aristotle says about length followingly: 

“Once more, the Epic imitation has less unity; as is shown by this, that any Epic poem will furnish subjects for several tragedies.”

Metre and Style: Epic poetry uses a special rhythm called heroic metre. It fits the grand style of epic stories. This metre sounds serious and allows poets to use big or rare words. Aristotle says this is right for epics but not for tragedies. Tragedies need words that are closer to real-life speech. In tragedy, language should be simple and clear. It is required especially when something important is happening. If the words are too fancy, the meaning may get lost.

Surprise and the Unbelievable: Both tragedy and epic can have surprise and strange events. But strange or magical things are easier to accept in epics. This is because we only hear the story, but we do not see it. In tragedies, if something unbelievable is shown on stage, it may look silly. That is why Aristotle says epics can use more wonders and strange events. Homer was very good at this. He made even magical events feel real.

Unity and Focus: Tragedy has stricter unity. Everything connects to one main action. Epics have subplots and digressions. Aristotle says unity makes tragedy better. A single epic (The Iliad) could be split into many tragedies. This shows epics are less focused. A well-made tragedy, like Antigone, feels complete. An epic shortened to tragedy’s length would feel incomplete. But a tragedy stretched to epic length would lose its power. Focus makes tragedy superior. After all, the author elevates the degree of tragedy to a higher place than that of epic poetry through the following words.

“All the elements of an epic are included in tragedy; but those of Tragedy are not all of them to be found in the Epic.”

To sum up, Aristotle sees both tragedy and epic poetry as great forms of art. But he thinks tragedy is better. It has all the good parts of epic poetry and adds more. It gives stronger emotions, uses music and action, and tells the story better. Even if someone reads a tragedy without watching it, they will still feel the same deep feelings. That is why Aristotle says tragedy is the best and most complete form of poetry.