Leslie Marmon Silko's poem, “Ceremony,” is a great example of how poetry, even the simplest to understand, can be productive. Poetry is productive because it conveys a message: Stories are powerful. The message conveyed by a poem can be used rightly or wrongly. Whether or not poetry is used to achieve good or evil, it has a purpose. On the one hand, Plato in Plato's Republic is against poets because their poetic works prove problematic in his Republic. His goal is to create a perfect city and to do so he must establish strict rules that dictate the behavior of his people. Poets, according to him, create poems that would be destructive if not monitored in his city. On the other hand, Sidney in An Apology for Poetry defends poets and poetry by admitting the charges against poetry. He states that poetry has importance when it combines pleasure and teaching. Even though these two literary theorists have different opinions on whether poetry is good or bad, they can both agree that poetry is useful. People can learn acceptable behavior and morals by reading poetry. Poems, therefore, can be used as a teaching tool. So, even though Plato and Sidney have opposite perspectives regarding poetry, both literary theorists would agree that Leslie Marmon Silko's poem, “Ceremony,” is significant. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. Plato would find that the content of the poem is aimed at maintaining order in his Republic, while Sidney would appreciate the usefulness of the poem; thus demonstrating that poetry is productive as it can be used to teach desired behaviors and ideologies. Plato fears that poetry will ruin the courageous mindset he wants people in his Republic to have. As previously mentioned, he wants the people in his Republic to behave and think a certain way to ensure a prosperous city. Dictating the ideologies of citizens, influencing young people is one of the easiest approaches to this problem. Plato says that the beginning of any work is the most important, and this rule applies even to young children (Plato 54 377b). The reason why young children must be treated with great consideration is because “at that stage [they are] the most plastic, and [they] assimilate[e] [themselves] to the model whose imprint one wants to make. ]” (Plato 54 377b). In other words, children will behave and grow based on the values ​​or norms they were first taught when they were young. In the third book, Plato mentions two noble lies that only the creators of the city will know. The purpose of these lies is to promote courage and kindness towards everyone in the city, discouraging people from fulfilling a role that is not suited to their souls. By considering his views regarding the plasticity of children's minds and the noble lies he wishes to implore, readers can understand why he fears poetry so much. He fears that some poetic works ruin the mentality of young people. “Small children [cannot] judge what [the] hidden meaning [in the poem] is” and whatever message they take from the poem at that age will be “hard to eradicate and immutable” (Plato 56 378e). This is why Plato states that the creators of the city “must go to great lengths to [ensure] that what they hear first, with respect to virtue, are the most beautifully told stories they can hear” (Plato 56 378e). He claims that children still cannot distinguish right or wrong when reading poetry. Consequentially,they will not always be able to discover the virtues hidden between the lines of the poem. If they misinterpret the message of the poem, it can lead to disaster in Plato's Republic because he would have a generation of children who would grow up contrary to how he would like every citizen to grow up. For example, in “Ceremony,” the idea of ​​the thinking woman predetermining everything in the world can scare children. They may feel that their life and actions are out of their control because Thought-Woman dictates everything they are currently doing and will do in the future. Children may misinterpret the main message of the story and end up devaluing their ability to make choices. If children grow up devaluing their free will along with their choices, they may not work as hard or protect the city fiercely enough; this is why Plato would not want poetry capable of conveying wrong ideals to be read by the people in his Republic. Having citizens who ignore the purpose of noble lies results in a disorganized and spiritless city. So, he only wants certain poetry with particular rules allowed in his city. To continue, poets are only allowed to portray gods as creators of good things, and bad things are created from other things that are not gods (Plato 57 379c). He even goes so far as to establish a law according to which speaking and producing poetry cannot violate this rule: “god is not the cause of all things, but of good” (Plato 58 380c). Gods cannot be seen waging war on other gods, nor plotting against each other, nor even fighting among themselves (Plato 56 378c). Having poems depicting gods in disputes and having secret plans to overthrow other gods leaves an impression on maturing children. Having poetry may deem illicit behavior acceptable as children may be inclined to imitate this behavior and replicate it in the future because if the gods can plot against each other and fight, so can they. Plato concludes that “they must supervise the makers of tales; and if they make a good story, it must be approved, but if it is not, it must be rejected” (Plato 55 377c) and “they will not allow teachers to use [unapproved poetry] for the education of the young” so that the their “guardians will be devoted to God and divine to the extent that a human being can be” (Plato 61 383c). In other words, poetry that breaks the rules Plato created will result in humans being less divine because they would engage in unacceptable behavior that would pit citizens against each other in his Republic, thus poisoning the harmony he tried so hard to establish. induce. Thus, Plato does not want unapproved poetry to be allowed in the creation of the best city because it will create undivine children who will one day grow up denying the two noble lies and will have the wrong impression of acceptable behavior. While Plato disapproves of unapproved poetry, Sidney encourages poets to create poetry as they see fit to enhance, delight, and teach. He states that only poets can make things better than the forms that nature can produce (Sidney 330). Sidney states that the poet makes poems that are above nature because they bring a new perspective that has never been seen before or was never found in nature in the first place. Furthermore, Sidney goes so far as to say that nature is not as beautiful as poetry. He says that “nature has never presented the earth in so rich a tapestry as several poets have done” (Sidney 330). Nature is beautiful only when poets describe it, and without poetry nature is insipid. To continue, Sidney responds to earlier literary theorists, such as Plato, who criticized poetrybecause it's memetic. He does not refute these claims but instead supports the positive aspects of poetry as memetics. Of course, he says that poetry imitates, but it imitates to teach as well as to delight. Without the two components combined together – teaching and delight – poetry loses half of its potential. If poetry taught but did not delight, the lesson placed in their minds would fly away without having been learned; and if poetry delights but does not teach, then they would be moved by the words but would be moved without direction (Sidney 332). The poet then, "with his imitation [made] his own, embellishes it both for further instruction [and] delight" (Sidney 339). Likewise, it is like continuously lecturing a student about morals. The lessons are intended to teach the student, but because it does not entertain the student, the student may not take those lessons to heart and learn from them. On the other hand, doing an activity intended to teach the student morals but not debriefing on the meaning of the activities is ultimately just as useless as teaching a lesson without enjoying it. Sidney's argument can also be found in “Ceremony,” as both teaching and pleasure are encompassed in the poem. The didactic aspect is found in the speaker's defense of the stories. The speaker states that stories “[are] not just entertainment” (Silko line 3) as they are “all we have to fight disease and death” (Silko line 6). Furthermore, “[one has] nothing if [he/she] [has] no stories” (Silko lines 7-8). The speaker identifies stories as the only weapons that can repel illness and death. Without stories, one is subject to ailments that lead to death. The delight of this poem is not found in the well-arranged or chosen words, but rather in the oratory voice that can be heard. There are funny points in the poem that children would find delightful. For example, the speaker rubs his belly and asks readers to place a hand on his belly to feel the movement of the stories (Silko lines 16-21). The oratory aspect and engagement with readers are what makes “Ceremony” enjoyable to read. This subsequently creates a sense of warmth and trust that combines the educational aspect with the pleasant one – a concept that Sidney believes is absolutely necessary. Contrary to what Plato thinks, Sidney claims that poetry does not deceive or lie to younger or older readers. Plato thinks that poetry can be dangerous for children because they can learn inappropriate moral lessons since they do not have enough experience to judge for themselves what is virtuous or not. However, Sidney refutes this by saying that poets assert nothing, and therefore do not lie since "to lie is to assert that what is false is true" (Sidney 348). He continues to say that poets do not actually make readers believe that what they write is true, and even children can distinguish what is real or not in poetry and plays (Sidney 349). Sidney is not wrong when he says that poets don't lie. For example, in the poem “Ceremony,” the speaker says that Thought-Woman and her sisters created the universe simply by thinking about it (Silko lines 26-28). Nowhere in the poem does the speaker state that this is the absolute truth and readers must believe that this thought-woman is real as it is simply a story one would like to share with others. To conclude, Sidney defends attacks on the art of poetry, making poetry more respected. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Although Plato and Sidney have different opinions on the art of poetry, they both agree that Silko's poem, “Ceremony,” is significant. Since Plato's goal is.