Literary lesson

[badpoetry19]

I freaking hate neoplatonism.  By now, I have studied enough 16th and 17th century lit to qualify me for a rant.

Okay.  Anyone who reads English literature has come across the concepts of neoplatonism.  Especially if you read sonnets.  Astrophel and Stella by Sir Phillip Sydney is a prime example.  The central problem around a sonnet is unrequited love.  A man loves a lady, but the lady doesn't love him back.  Suck.  We've all been in a similar situation.  Despite the man's advances, the lady loves him not.

So!

The man endeavors to rise above physical attraction.  There is the center of platonic love.  To love something platonically is to love it in concept.  You love beauty---that is, the ideal of beauty.  You rise above lust, above attraction, above romantic love.

Rise above the physical.

Aspire to Reason.

What platonic love IS NOT:

Platonic love is not a love between friends.  To love something platonically is to love it ideally, without physicallity (damn adverbs).  If a girl says to you, "Let's just be friends", that is not a request for platonic love.

That, my friend, is called "getting jipped".

That's just my own sense of frustration talking, of course.

Anyway.  Platonic love is completely misinterpreted these days.  Not that I think it was such a hot idea in its initial conception.  Personally, I think Plato is full of shit.

That asshole didn't even like poets.

Socrates is still cool, though.

Down with Plato
I want nothing of your Republic
     Athenian
          Philosopher
may your ideas
your societal values
your diatribes- 
may they all hang!

you have no use for my kind
     the Wordsworths
         the Chaucers
              the Homers

a delicate heart is yours
that you would not let another touch it

a danger, am I?
     a threat?
          a saboteur of reason?

Athenian 
I hijack the senses for but a moment
you have derailed countless generations
     through misinterpretation

the men who admonish
look don’t touch
the girls who shake their heads
let’s just be friends
those who pursue beauty
but know it not

you tarnish hearts
shut them away
     lockdown
at least I allow mine to beat