48/1001 - Willson Whitman, Plato, and Robinson Jeffers

 Monday, April 7th, 2025

Essay: the preface to The Best Known Works of Plato translated by Benjamin Jewitt, preface by Willson Whitman

I thought the concluding paragraphs were lovely. And correct, as far as why read Plato's dialogues, or anything at all, for that matter.

"...the dialogues need no introduction; they are ready to be read.

"And for what reason, Socrates would say? For pleasure? To say we have read them? To do us good? The answer, surely, is for all three reasons; but first, for pleasure.

"A young man who escaped scholarly boredom with the masterpieces of literature by going to sea is now reading them as they should be read, for fun. He discovered Plato with delight, and writes of that discovery:

 "'My best time for reading is to get up at sunrise, when I can be alone. Then I can read on deck.'

"Plato at sunrise, at sea--that surely is the way he should be read. Light in the east, cool morning air with a tang of Attic salt in it, and no distractions to mar the miracle of the world's waking - there are the ideal conditions.

"And yet, if we read the same pages at midnight by a warm fireside we must find in them something of that same clear morning light."

Short story: Book 1 of Plato's Republic, translation by Benjamin Jewett

I know its not strictly a story, but it kind of is, as it's written in a narrative story form.

Poem:

Ocean

by Robinson Jeffers

It dreams in the deepest sleep, it remembers the storm

       last month or it feels the far storm

Off Unalaska and the lash of the sea-rain.

It is never mournful but wise, and takes the magical

       misrule of the steep world

With strong tolerance, its depth is not moved

From where the green sun fails to where the thin red clay

       lies on the basalt

And there has never been light nor life.

The black crystal, the untroubled fountain, the roots of

       endurance.

                      Therefore I belted

The house and the tower and courtyard with stone,

And have planted the naked foreland with future forest

       toward noon and morning: for it told me,

The time I was gazing in the black crystal,

To be faithful in storm, patient of fools, tolerant of

       memories and the muttering prophets,

It is needful to have night in one’s body.

I am sharing this photo just because I thought the morning light on the bowl of fruit was lovely. That's all.