# What does Poetics XIX (Butcher) say about 'Modes of Utterance' such as command, prayer, question and threat, and why does it set them aside?

- id: art_01M5MXFM08RRNBR2W6HMAFX2NR
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T01 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T17:38:33.578Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MXFM08RRNBR2W6HMAFX2NR

XIX names the first branch of Diction as the Modes of Utterance, gives command, prayer, statement, threat, question and answer as examples, and assigns the subject to the art of Delivery, not to poetry. It says not knowing these things involves 'no serious censure' on the poet, and rejects Protagoras's charge that Homer's 'Sing, goddess, of the wrath' confuses a command with a prayer. So the label of a line's speech type is not offered as a test of poetic skill; the text does not say that how a line sounds or lands is unimportant.

XIX names the first branch of Diction as the Modes of Utterance, gives command, prayer, statement, threat, question and answer as examples, and assigns the subject to the art of Delivery, not to poetry. It says not knowing these things involves 'no serious censure' on the poet, and rejects Protagoras's charge that Homer's 'Sing, goddess, of the wrath' confuses a command with a prayer. So the label of a line's speech type is not offered as a test of poetic skill; the text does not say that how a line sounds or lands is unimportant.

Curator qualifications: Modes of utterance are set aside as Delivery.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1974/pg1974.txt",
      "note": "candidate evidence excerpts"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] XIX names the first branch of Diction as the Modes of Utterance, gives command, prayer, statement, threat, question and answer as examples, and assigns the subject to the art of Delivery, not to poetry. It says not knowing these things involves 'no serious censure' on the poet, and rejects Protagoras's charge that Homer's 'Sing, goddess, of the wrath' confuses a command with a prayer. So the label of a line's speech type is not offered as a test of poetic skill; the text does not say that how a line sounds or lands is unimportant. · locator: candidate evidence excerpts · source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1974/pg1974.txt

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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