From fairest creatures we desire increase,That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,But as the riper should by time deceaseHis tender heir might bear his memory:But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,Making a famine where abundance lies,Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.Thou that art now the [...]
Entries from January 2008
January 17, 2008
Plato on Poets
I haven’t the time for any of my own comments, but here is another section of Plato’s Ion, in which Socrates comments upon the nature of poets. Not that we should necessarily trust every philosopher’s opinion of poetry, but here it is:
“For the poet is a light and winged and sacred thing, and is [...]
January 10, 2008
Education: Plato on Rhapsodes
Below is a passage from Plato’s Ion that lifted me from my chair this evening:
Indeed I have often envied you rhapsodes, Ion, for your art. For it is fitting to your art for you to be always conspicuous and to appear as beautiful as possible, but at the same time it is necessary [for [...]
January 4, 2008
Review: At War With The Word by R.V. Young
I’ve been doing quite a bit of genuine pleasure-reading this holiday season, serendipitously deciding to pick up C.S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. My only real comment about these novels is that I had forgotten how much Iiked Reepicheep.
But I’ve also had a chance for [...]
