Sovereignty
“Is it simply that people who philosophize think that people who produce, consume, or
appreciate poetry (the philopoiêtai) have the wrong priorities, and the proponents of poetry
think the same of the philosophers?” ~ http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/plato-and-the-poets/
We hold up ancient Greece as sovereign thought’s
Stone citadel, a marble temple made
Of sun struck pillars bright with megawatts
Of power and think that Greek heads banished shade
(Like poetry, emotion, shame) from pure
Philosophy. The mind of Plato shunned
The poets, exiled them, proposed to cure
His Parthenon with cleanliness. He stunned
His listeners by ostracizing plays,
Sharp strophes, epics and silk lyrics from
His architraved Republic. They caused maze
And disarray. They created a slum.
Pretending men could cast out feelings forms
A fool of Plato and his front-brained norms.
