Genre
Didactic Poetry
From Greek didaktikos: apt at teaching. A major genre from antiquity through the 18th century; the Romantics reacted strongly against its prescriptive nature.
Definition
Poetry whose primary aim is to instruct, teach, or morally edify the reader, rather than to express emotion or tell a story.
Example
Hesiod's Works and Days (8th c. BC); Pope's Essay on Man (1734); Virgil's Georgics.