Plato banned the Poets from his state,
……Yet said, if one could make a sound defense
……In lilting verse with cogent arguments
That they do more than merely imitate
An imitation and dissimulate,
……He’d take them back again. And ever since
……Our best minds have been trying to convince
His cautious Guardians of their mistake.
Sir Philip Sidney laid a firm foundation
……In his divine “Defense of Poesy”:
The Poet gives us Virtue’s exaltation
……More strong than History or Philosophy,
Concretely shows through his imagination
……Not just what is, but more: what ought to be.
From Stars through the Clouds: The Collected Poetry of Donald T. Williams, 2n edition (Lantern Hollow Press, 2020). Used by permission.
Donald T. Williams is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College and a past president of the International Society of Christian Apologetics. A border dweller, he stays permanently camped out on the borders between serious scholarship and pastoral ministry, theology and literature, Narnia and Middle-Earth. He is the author of fourteen books, including
the forthcoming Answers from Aslan: The Winsome Apologetics of C. S. Lewis (Tampa: DeWard, 2023).
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Citation Information
Donald T. Williams, “The Challenge of ‘The Republic’,” An Unexpected Journal: The Imaginative Harvest of Holly Ordway 4, no. 4. (Advent 2021), 201-02.
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