Plato Pooh-poohs Poets, like Blaming a Leopard for not Being an Antelope
Poor Plato misses, glaringly, the point,
As eggheads often do. Poets, he “thinks,”
Are worse than useless. That’s due to their joint
Mistake of using mimesis (which stinks)
And being so ignorant. They never
Know, really, the topics they write about:
Say, a surgeon knowing how to sever
Just so, charioteers driving about
The racecourse, and certainly poets don’t
Know virtue. So whatever they write screams,
“Flawed!” Only bad copyists, poets won’t
Accomplish wisdom. The poet blasphemes
Against the truth. “Who cares?” is what we ask,
Since chills and beauty are the poet’s task.