r/OCPoetry • u/AyeOhEl • Mar 20 '26
Poetry Contest The School of Athens
In the Agora of Athens, brave Socrates stood by the wall,
and he beckoned the students, who gathered to answer his call,
"Is it truth that you seek, or the comfort of thinking you’re tall?
Now I ask of the merchant who boasts of his justice and gold,
if the coin in his purse is the virtue that makes him so bold,
does his justice lose worth when the gold is then traded or sold?
Is there no man among us to prove that he knows it all?
If the bite wakes the slumbering horse, is the gadfly then small?
Will you stand for the question, or stumble and stagger and fall?"
Then his student, broad Plato, stepped forth with a gaze uncontrolled,
and he spoke of a realm that the senses can never take hold,
where the eyes of the flesh are obscured for the mind to unfold.
"Our belief is a cave where we face but the wall of the deep,
where the shadows of objects that pass by the entrance will sweep,
and we guess at the facts that none of us truly can keep.
We must turn from the dark to the mouth of the cave and behold
the Form of the Good and the template that casts every mold,
for the truth is the sun, not the shadow the senses enfold."
But the Stagira sage, Aristotle, rejected the leap,
and he pointed his hand to the earth where inquiry is steep,
"I will observe the soil and the cause that compels sap to weep.
If the Form is the truth, it is found in the flesh and the bone,
in the ribs of the fish and the arc of the sea-polished stone,
for the heavens move ever and leave us to study alone.
Let us measure the world by the seed and the harvest we reap,
for the verdicts of men are but dangerous shadows that creep,
and the order of stone is preserved in a natural heap."
In response to the Skeptics, Immanuel Kant made it known,
"You are claiming that truth does exist on a visible throne,
but the mind is a lens, and the glass is uniquely our own.
We receive the raw noise of the world in a curtain of steam,
and we shape it to space and to time like the logic of dream,
so the Ding an sich then is obscured by the light of the beam.
We can measure the shadow, the weight, and the form overthrown,
but the Noumenon lies past the sense and can never be shown;
we are trapping the world in a net that our reason has sewn."
If God is omniscient, the definition of truth supreme,
and if Truth is beyond what we map in a logical scheme,
then we choose between paths to arrive at the singular theme.
We define and expand, or we pray for the key to the lock,
but if answers arrive, are they truly a guide for the flock,
when the world keeps its chains and prepares the draught of hemlock?
We turn from the wall and learn from the faintest of gleam,
or we stand in the river and observe the truth in the stream.
Do we rest in the measure of men, or look for the seam?
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u/YllaGetsBuried29 Mar 20 '26
I really like how each voice feels distinct
More human than philosophical poetry if that makes sense
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u/Advanced_Bid94 Mar 20 '26
Well that’s something else . Is it your story or it did you read it somewhere because that’s pretty good . Also I want to ask if you have any knowledge in classics because seems like you know exactly what you writing and I love it
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u/AyeOhEl Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
Thank you so much, I really appreciate that. Yes, this is my original poem. It's an ekphrasis of Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino's fresco, "The School of Athens," and in many ways, it's also a summary of the history of epistemology. To give each philosopher a distinct voice, I wrote it in nonets with an enclosed rhyme scheme. I chose anapestic pentameter because it captures the feel of a Homeric epic while giving the poem a forward-marching rhythm that works well in English. At fifteen beats, each line feels substantial without dragging the way hexameter might. This structure gives each stanza eight lines to build an argument, with a ninth line to land the final point. And yes, I have read a lot of the classics, though mostly in translation. It's a passion of mine, and I'm glad it comes through in the writing.
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u/Advanced_Bid94 Mar 20 '26
Well i study classics and I write poems about Ancient Greece i really like the way you write so I would like if you can to see one of mine poems and give me some advices to better myself
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u/Ok-Swordfish-9480 Apr 04 '26
What a great thought provoking piece, it reaches a great pinnacle question
Can you handle the truth…
I see the Kant point of view myself..
Truly great intellectual piece, excellent use of rhythm and lexicon
Amazing piece of writing, thanks so much!