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What We Drink

        What We Drink Who wants thick wisdom first in poems?  It Is ours for chewing in the pleasures of The scrolls of Plato, thinkers who permit The thought that pleasure proves the point of love, And stern philosophers with guts to kill All weakness, straight.  The...

The Venerable, Ancient Need

The Venerable, Ancient Need Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “And Socrates the philosopher, who despised everything, was, for all that, subdued by the beauty of Alcibiades; as also was the venerable...

The Truth about Ancient History, Plato, and Poetry

The Truth about Ancient History, Plato, and Poetry “Socrates says in the Republic that he and Plato’s brothers might have to inform poetry about the ancient quarrel between it and philosophy. Glenn Most (“What Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry?”) argues...

The Poet!

               The Poet! “light, winged, holy creature” ~ The words of Socrates to describe a poet, as quoted in Penelope Murray, Plato on Poetry, 8 That’s always how I’ve thought about myself, Yup, yes, of course, at least when I have thought Of me as “poet”—surely...

Socrates versus Sappho

  Socrates versus Sappho   One wonders if poor Socrates might just Have been much happier if he had made Up poems, not philosophy.  A gust Of inspiration from Apollo swayed The poets into rhapsody of thrill. While lost in love for some young person’s hair, The writers...

Spells and the Thoughts of Tiresias

Spells and the Thoughts of Tiresias “Halliwell’s basic argument is that Socrates admits the Book X arguments to be insecure and open to defeat. He calls them ‘spells’ rather than philosophical knowledge, and he asserts that he must use them [those arguments]...