In the final book of his masterwork, having answered the central question of the dialogue, Plato turns Socrates back to the question of literature in the Kallipolis. Based on the theory of the Forms developed earlier in REPUBLIC Plato levels a devastating critique of poetry as an imitation three times removed from Truth, or the ideal reality. However, in true intellectual humility he ends this argument against poetry with this passage:
"... if poetry directed to pleasure and imitation have any argument to give showing that they should be in a city with good laws, we should be delighted to receive them back from exile.... Isn't it just for them to come back in this way -- when it has made an apology?... And surely we would also give its protectors ... occasion to speak an argument ... on its behalf, showing that it's not only pleasant but also beneficial to regimes and human life. And we shall listen benevolently. For surely we shall gain if it should turn out to be not only pleasant but also beneficial."
Next, Socrates addresses the immortality of the soul with both argument and the famous myth of Er and its tale of the afterlife. There can be no doubt that Robert Frost had this legend in mind when he wrote his poem, "The Trial by Existence," which I read in its entirety on our Simple Gifts podcast, published January 24th, entitled "Poems by Robert Frost, Part 4." The poem ends with this stanza, a fitting conclusion to our reading of what has been perhaps the most important text in philosophy in the Western world:
’Tis of the essence of life here,
Though we choose greatly, still to lack
The lasting memory at all clear,
That life has for us on the wrack
Nothing but what we somehow chose;
Thus are we wholly stripped of pride
In the pain that has but one close,
Bearing it crushed and mystified.
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