Plato On Poetry & Poets

5218 Words21 Pages
Plato on Poetry & Poets * Plato’s discourse of poetry and poets * View of life in Republic * First systematic literary critic * Objections on poetry * On Educational grounds * On philosophical grounds * On moral grounds * Plato and Poets Plato on Poets and Poetry Plato’s discussion of poetry and the poets stands at the cradle of Western literary criticism. Plato is paradoxically, the philosopher who alludes to works of poetry more than any other and the one who is at the same time the harshest critic of poetry. Poetry in Greek society was always oral rather than written. The audience was one of listeners, not readers. Even in Plato's day we have a primarily oral culture. Poetry for the Greeks is a memorized tradition that depends on constant and reiterated recitation. Through this process there is a total participation and an emotional identification with what is being learned. That’s why Plato objected poets and poetry. Plato is, above all, a moralist with his primary objective in the Republic to come up with the most righteous and intelligent way to live one's life and to convince others to live this way. Everything else should conform in order to achieve this perfect State. Plato considers poetry useful only as a means of achieving this State if it helps one to become a better person and if it does not, it should be expelled from the community. He states that the good poet cannot compose well unless he knows his subject, and he who has not this knowledge can never be a poet. Plato talks of imitative poetry and Homer, “A man is not to be reverenced more than the truth”, because he believes that Homer speaks of many things of which he has no knowledge, just as the painter who paints a picture of a bed does not necessarily know how to make a bed. He was the first systemic critic who inquired into the nature

More about Plato On Poetry & Poets

Open Document