Why did Lessing argue that poetry should show events unfolding over time?

In his influential treatise Laokoon (1766), Gotthold Ephraim Lessing argued that the arts should be classified by their specific mediums—space or time—and that each should restrict itself to what it is uniquely equipped to do.12

Lessing contended that painting and other visual arts are spatial, meaning they exist in a single moment and must therefore select the most expressive, "seminal" instant to represent. In contrast, he defined poetry and literature as temporal arts. Because poetry unfolds through language over time, he argued that its essence lies in the representation of movement, change, and the transitory. By depicting events in their natural, successive order, poetry can effectively tell a story and capture the development of actions, whereas visual art is limited to a static, simultaneous presentation.12