epistle, acomposition in prose orpoetry written in the form of a letter to a particular person or group.

Inliterature there are two basic traditions of verse epistles, one derived fromHorace’sEpistles and the other fromOvid’sEpistulae heroidum (better known asHeroides). The tradition based on Horace addressesmoral and philosophical themes and has been the most popular form since the Renaissance. The form that developed from Ovid deals withromantic and sentimental subjects; it was more popular than the Horatian form during the European Middle Ages. Well-known examples of the Horatian form are the letters of Paul the Apostle (the Pauline epistles incorporated into the Bible), which greatly aided the growth of Christianity into a world religion, and such works asAlexander Pope’s “An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot.” Other writers who have used the form includeBen Jonson,John Dryden, andWilliam Congreve, as well as W.H. Auden andLouis MacNeice more recently.