Plato’s Sonnet
(A liberated caveman)
When I was tethered
up inside the cave
Where I could see
but shadows on the wall
I craved to see how
Real Things would behave.
I plotted my escape
through study: all
Real Things should
be discoverable in the end
Though first unseen
directly. I knew there
Must be Real Forms
somewhere since shades depend
On Something Real to
cast them. With great care,
I studied every
shadow so I might
Infer what cast the
umbrage. In that way
I burrowed backward
out into the Light.
I now see plainly
Forms have Forms, and they
Have culmination here in that one Form
Of Good that I predicted as the Norm.
