A Poem Inspired by The Republic
That Plato turned things on their head
When Socrates, to Glaucon, said
“The bed you sleep on is no bed.”
Glaucon’s heart was filled with dread,
The man’s gone mad, his brain is dead.
“Why, reason from your mind has fled!”
“The one true bed is in your head,
dear Glaucon, think on that instead.
You’ll reach enlightenment” he said.
“But if it is a phantom bed,
how does it yet support my head?”
Socrates then scratched his head,
and scratched until his pate turned red
“The bed’s not real, nor is your head.
All will be gone when life has fled.
The form of these, this bed, this head,
rest evermore, and this has led
me to conclude what I have said”
He turned, and dove into the Med.