Evoking Emotion: The Ramifications of Poetry

The Republic Book X closes the work in a somewhat unexpected fashion, but the earlier half of the book is still considering a specific law within the city, as Plato has been doing for the majority of the book. This time, the law concerns the banishment of poets. Socrates argues that poetry is, regrettably, a negative influence due to its praising and amplification of the desiring part of the soul. Up until this point, one presumably agrees with Socrates in that calculating part is certainly the best part of the soul, and it is hard to deny that poetry aids the desiring part in usurping the calculating part's power. Why, then, do we find it so difficult to let go of poetry and songwriting in all forms?

We tried to defend its usefulness in class, but I feel as though we cannot entirely justify its place in our society. However, poetry, songwriting, movies, and other forms of art are cornerstones of our culture. We all immerse ourselves in these quite often, despite the fact that they are not logically good for us. Of course, some of these works do have educational merit, but those are often considered the least enjoyable by many. Do works that evoke emotion truly make us more susceptible to letting those emotions rule us? Socrates seems to think so.

Socrates also tells us to do nothing without calculation, though. Is it not possible to read poetry using the calculating part of the soul, as well? Analyzing poetry for its meaning is surely considered to be a worthy endeavor, and this can be applied to the analyzing of songwriting and movies as well. Whether or not one agrees with the content of a poem, attempting to divine the author's meaning is an exercise in and of itself. So long as we approach these mediums with an analytical attitude, there is at least some merit from these works. If we attempt to remove the emotional connection we have with the words, we remove its negative impact upon ourselves.