March 25, 2019 · 2:57 pm
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Cocky Young Meno – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Teachable – Word of the Day

Plato.jpg

Image: lounge.obviousmag.org   A bust of Plato

Cocky Young Meno

Meno strutting in Athens with entourage
sycophant of Gorgias
that overblown sophist and Socratic doubter,
Plato counter-posed you
in a double counter play
of the virtue of virtue
how innate, how not,
and you were confused
a mere child caught in
a permanent aporia,
but Socrates,
dear, tragic Socrates
showed you the way,
to search for that which
we do not know.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Note: Plato wrote ‘Meno’ as a Socratic piece, a dialogue between Meno and Socrates. Meno is young and believes he is accomplished and clever, but Socrates proves him to be confused and lacking. Meno was also a mercenary who became involved with Cyrus the 2nd’s attempt to take the Persian throne from Artaxerxes, Cyrus was killed and Meno and other generals captured, all but Meno were beheaded. And I quip, at least he kept his head that time. The poem is really an elegy for Socrates who taught Meno a lesson.

 

Paul, pvcann.com

34 Comments

Filed under Free Verse, history, life, philosophy, poem

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34 responses to “Cocky Young Meno – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon”

  1. Bee Halton
    March 25, 2019 at 3:35 pm

    Greatly put 🙋‍♀️🐝

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  3. equipsblog
    March 25, 2019 at 7:45 pm

    Thanks for the cliff-notes version of what the poem is about. My classical education has some major gaps in it.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. Ennle Madresan
    March 26, 2019 at 12:18 am

    WOW….you sure do remind me of the late blog poet, Paul Lenzi…(huge compliment, in case you wondered).

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. Jannatul Ferdous Sorna
    March 26, 2019 at 5:08 am

    😀🙏😊 Thank you very much for following my site. ❤ God bless you.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. Ennle Madresan
    March 26, 2019 at 8:19 am

    I hope this doesn’t sound too strange or pathetic…obviously, I don’t believe in reincarnation…but I miss Paul Lenzi a lot, and it’s comforting to think his spirit remains with us here, in much of your poetry.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. Pingback: 321 Quote Me – Ain’t it the Truth? – Tales from the mind of Kristian

  10. OIKOS™-Publishing
    March 26, 2019 at 11:28 pm

    Great done, Paul! Love it very much. Thank you for sharing this, and the other poems. Best wishes, Michael

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. lync56
    March 28, 2019 at 7:48 am

    Great intellect that creates a poem like this

    >

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  13. David Redpath
    March 31, 2019 at 3:38 am

    “I know nothing!”, said Aristotle
    when it was Socrates all of Athens
    decided to throttle 😎

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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