Plato's three main objections to poetry are that poetry is not ethical, philosophical or pragmatic. It is not ethical because it promotes undesirable passions, it is not philosophical because it does not provide true knowledge, and it is not pragmatic because it is inferior to the practical arts and therefore has no educational value. Plato then makes a challenge to poets to defend themselves against his criticisms. Ironically it was Plato's most famous student, Aristotle, who was the first theorist to defend literature and poetry in his writing Poetics.
             Throughout the Republic Plato condemns art in all forms including literature or poetry. Despite the fact that he wrote, Plato advocates the spoken word over the written word. He ranks imitation (mimetic representation) on a lower plane than narrative, even though his own works read like scripts (the Republic is written in dialogue form with characters doing all the talking). It appears as though his reasoning is that imitation of reality is not in itself bad, but imitation without understanding and reason is. Plato felt that poetry, like all forms of art, appeals to the inferior part of the soul, the irrational, emotional cowardly part. The reader of poetry is seduced into feeling undesirable emotions. To Plato, an appreciation of poetry is incompatible with an appreciation of reason, justice, and the search for Truth. To him drama is the most dangerous form of literature because the author is imitating things that he/she is not. Plato seemingly feels that no words are strong enough to condemn drama.
             Plato felt that all the world's evils derived from one source: a faulty understanding of reality. Miscommunication, confusion and ignorance were facets of a corrupted comprehension of what Plato always strived for - Truth. Plato is, above all, a moralist. His primary objective in the Republic is to come up with the most righteous, intelligent way to live one's life and to convince oth...