“Poetry is twice removed from reality.”
Atkins
professes Plato as “the light bringer”
and comments that he is,
“One of the greatest of critics in the truest sense, a light bringer,
ever guiding men’s steps to the spiritual side of art.”
Plato
(428/427 BC – 348-347 BC), the great ancient Greek philosopher was the most
revered and yet the most controversial critic of the ancient times. Plato, the
most outstanding disciple of Socrates, became the only object for the scholars
and critics to shower or pour their voice of wonder and admiration. Plato is
the holy brook from where the everlasting discussion of criticism of poetry
starts. Scholars are not exhausted in eulogizing Plato for his immense
contribution to criticism.
It is perhaps
a disappointing fact that the philosopher (Plato) who of all philosophers was
most richly endowed with poetic sensibilities, and who had adorned his prose
with the lines and phrases taken from the greatest poets, turned against the
poets and banished them from his nation. The question is, “Why Plato, who loved the poets and poetry so much, all of a sudden
turned against them and passed a serious censor against poets and poetry?”
WHY PLATO WENT AGAINST POETS & POETRY?
The fact is
that when Plato came with his critical theories, the wonderful flowering period
of Greek art was over. Creativity in Greek had stopped. Philosophers and
orators were the leaders in every walk of life. Plato, being a philosopher had
social responsibility on him and he wanted to restore art, literature and
politics to its highest pedestal. He wanted to create an IDEAL STATE and IDEAL
CITIZENS. He wanted to see whether art and literature helps the nation in
moulding the character of his citizens or not. When he examined poetry closely,
he found that poetry is more harmful than beneficial. Poetry is a nurse of
abuse.
According
to Plato, the poets such as Homer and Hesiod were teaching immoral lessons to
the society. The tragedians and comedians were presenting unworthy things in
their plays. Plato wanted to create an IDEAL STATE. In an ideal state there is
no place for them. Can a guardian of the state allow the poets who are
misrepresenting the Gods and Goddesses? No. Can he allow the poets who present
the Gods as cruel, revengeful and lustful? Never. This was intolerable for
Plato. So he presented his arguments against the poets and poetry in some of
his critical works as follows:
1.
Dialogues
2.
Symposium
3.
Philebus
4.
Phaedrus
5.
Ion
6.
Republic
Plato’s
two most outstanding theories – Theory of Inspiration and Theory of Imitation –
are found in his books ‘Ion’ and ‘Republic’ respectively.
THEORY OF INSPIRATION: INTELLECTUAL GROUND:
John
Dryden said, “Great wits are sure to
madness near allied.” Shakespeare also wrote, “The lunatic, the lover and the poet are of imagination all compact.”
Similarly,
Plato in his book ‘Ion’ develops the argument that the poet, who touches the
heart of the readers and moves them, is first of all inspired by God. Plato
writes:
“The poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no
invention in him, until he is inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind
is no longer in him.”
According
to Plato, the poet is inspired by the ‘Divine Frenzy’ and so he composes a good
and beautiful poem not by art, but because he is inspired. When the poet is
inspired by God, he is not himself, his intellectual power stops working. He
infuses only emotions in his poetry. When the reader reads his poetry, he too
becomes highly emotional, his intellectual power is lost. Plato believed poetry
nurtures the most worthless part of soul (emotions). As a result, the poet
misleads the nation. Hence, Plato concludes:
“And therefore, when anyone of these gentlemen comes to us and makes a
proposal to exhibit himself and his poetry, we will fall down and worship him
as a sweet and holy and wonderful thing, but we must also inform him that in
our state such as he are not permitted to exist, the law will not allow them.”
THEORY OF IMITATION: PHILOSOPHICAL GROUND:
The
concept of Mimesis or Imitation is introduced by Plato in Book X of the
‘Republic’. Plato, a philosopher, believed in the philosophy of the Absolute.
According to this philosophy, this real (?) world is an imitation of the Divine
or Idea.
He
believed that God created this world. First there was an ‘Idea of the World’ in
God’s mind. God copied this idea and created this world. Hence, this world is a
copy or imitation. It is not real. The poets live in this unreal world. When
they write poetry, they observe various objects in this unreal world. The copy
these unreal objects from this unreal world and present them in their poetry.
Hence, poetry is an imitation of this world, which is again an imitation of the
God’s idea.
Poetry is twice removed from reality.
There are many chairs in this world, but there is only one idea of chair. So when a carpenter makes a chair, he only copies that idea. He cannot create new ideas. Ideas only exist. Thus, the chair made by the carpenter is a copy of the idea of chair which was in his mind. It is a copy or imitation and imitation can never be real.
In the
same manner, the poet’s work is also an imitation, not real. Poetry is an
imitation of this world, which in turn is an imitation of the idea of the world
lying in the God’s mind. Hence, poetry is twice removed from reality.
In the
words of R. A. Scott James,
“Poet deals with a world of seeming, in which each object as
perceived, comes and goes; now seeming large, now small; now hot relatively to
this and cold relatively to that; sweet at one moment and sour at another;
always changing, many illusory; whereas the real is Unchanging and One, that is
Idea.”
Hence,
Plato concludes that poetry is twice removed from reality. Poetry is based on
falsehood. It does not present truth. It tells lies. And the result is, Plato
banished the poets and poetry from his IDEAL STATE.
CONCLUSION:
Thus,
Plato rejected the poets and poetry from his country Greece. He rejected them
on intellectual, moral and philosophical grounds.
Plato
being a moralist believed that poetry must serve moral lessons to the citizens.
He was against poetry but we must remember that he did allow the moral kind of
poetry – panegyric to great people and hymns to God.
He believed
that poetry arouses emotions in the reader’s heart. A disciplined citizen must
control his emotions. Moreover, immoral poetry written during his times leaded
the citizens to a wrong path. And so he banished the poets and poetry from his
IDEAL STATE.
After
all these arguments of Plato, Lord Lindsay rightly and humorously remarked:
“Plato begins with an attack on poetry and ends with a poem.”
It is
again rightly said about Plato:
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