Poets as Healers
The first great poet, Orpheus, was called
The Healer. Is there some great truth involved
In that? Surely Plato wasn’t enthralled
With poets. Plato sneered. He was resolved
To say that they were more inclined to ill
And that they couldn’t even explain their
Craft (seeming to require them to fulfil
The roles of wise academics aware
Of all the dithyrambs and rests) as if
The poets thought mechanically.
Instead their medicine produced a whiff
Of deity and myrrh volcanically.
..The sage one wanted Orpheus to chant
….With wisdom like professors in their cant.