Untitled

Plato

 Star of my life, to the stars your face is turned;
 Would I were the heavens, looking back at you with ten thousand eyes.

Commentary

Comments :) does it really need any? Its just so simple and so beautiful that nothing I say about it can do it justice. (or so I feel about it).

Regards
Nikhil Sethi

Martin adds

Plato had a lot to say about poetry :). On the one hand, there’s his famous quote

“Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history”

On the other hand, book 10 of his Republic contains an extended diatribe against poetry (“imitative poetry” to be precise), which he considers “thrice removed” from the truth, and rejected in his Ideal Republic:

Of he many excellences which I perceive in the order of our State, there is none which upon reflection pleases me better than the rule about poetry.

To what do you refer?

To the rejection of imitative poetry, which certainly ought not to be received

– http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.11.x.html

I think today’s poem speaks more eloquently than any diatribe, though.

[1] a fascinating document, by the way - the first time I read it, I was spellbound despite my initial reluctance to embark upon it


The Wondering Minstrels, poem #1279 · 16 June 2003

Guest poem submitted by Nikhil Sethi

Fair use

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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.

Tim Reynolds · 19 June 2003

My woman is Arkheanasa of Colophon
in whose each wrinkle smoulders a bitter love You young men who shipped on her maiden voyage out of what a conflagration you have come

Plato

Shailja Sharma · 3 September 2003

this is just the most perfect line ever written ..( yeah quoting Segal) its the ULTIMATE

Nikhil Sethi · 6 September 2003

The perfect lines for that perfect someone… the beauty of the poem can only be really appreciated when you know the person for whom these lines were written/dedicated. :)

Shailja Sharma · 8 September 2003

God!! This poem sure can take anyone’s breath away !:) i think, when one reads these lines, and thinks of that someone who dedicated them to him/her with smiles, tears and faith …tht someone has to be the MOST precious person, the best thing, in one’s life. These stars are, So Far …Yet So Near, and by having Faith, one day those stars and those eyes will see each other, unite forever. I think this poem is bout “Keeping the Faith; for only then dreams come true.They do.”

Nikhil Sethi · 10 September 2003

For, you see, each day I love you more,
Today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.

- Rosemonde Gérard, “L’éternelle chanson” -

Shailja Sharma · 13 September 2003

“It’s is a long hard journey, but if u want the rainbow, you have to put up with a little rain.” (-Dolly Parton) I was reading a book the other day n came across this beautiful line, touched me just the way it talks bout love and faith: “It was most foolish to think that she would let go of him;for now he lived within her, no more she knew where she ended and he began…” :)

Alok Tiwari Gurgaon · 16 November 2005

This poem has no deceptive techniques, it has untrained players - stars, heavens, face… and they have given their best raw shots.

Regards,
Alok Tiwary