Allegory of the Cave (Sonnet)

Plates allegory of the cave,
We are a people who only know what we see.
A society who doesn't see the reality that save,
Those who only shadows plea.

The prisoners represent ignorance, unable to accept reality,
The sun represents the truth we long for but don't know.
But learn to accept yourself as a principality,
We are still learning how to live your life to flow.

Intellect confusion is unseen by most,
These shackles in these prisoners are things that hold us back from true reality.
If the many we boast,
In a word full of mentality and brutality.

It's up to you to decide if you want to follow the shadows.
But know, just know, that those shadows can be shallow.

Plates Allegory of the Cave

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?

-It means that we only know what we see and will only know that unless we are shown the true reality. 

2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?

-The prisoners represents our ignorance, the sun represents the truth that we don’t know, the shackles represent the things that hold us back.

3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?

-It suggests that when opportunity is thrusted upon you, you must take it.

4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?

-The shackles and the cave suggest that prisoners have no idea about life and what its really about. There are shackles on the prisoner’s mind.

5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?

- I feel like almost everything in our society puts shackles on our minds even my parents. They only tell me what they want me to know and won’t answer questions and they have done that since I was little. As we recently learned, the Internet search browsers put shackles on our minds they don’t give us all the facts they only show you what they think you should know. The government doesn’t reveal all the facts the public but maybe thats a good thing. The thing is that we will never know the whole picture so how can we truly know what we believe in.

6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?

- The perspective of the freed prisoner is that he has seen and therefore knows, but the cave prisoner only sees shadows therefore his only reality is the shadows.

7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?

-The freed prisoner is confused when he is released from the shackles because all he’s ever known is shadows so that is his reality. So when he enters the real world he must question what is reality.

9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?

-Their is a distinction between appearances and reality because the shadows were just the appearance of something but not the true reality of what it actually is.

10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?

-An alternative assumption would be that because all the prisoner’s had come to know were the shadows and because of that the shadows are their reality.

My Big Question and a Sonnet

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red; 

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; 

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. 

I have seen roses damasked, red and white, 

But no such roses see I in her cheeks; 

And in some perfumes is there more delight 

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. 

I love to hear her speak, 

yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go; 

My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. 

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
     As any she belied with false compare.

Sonnet Analysis #1

SONNETS:

Little sound, little song

Petrarch-style 

Sonnet-14 lines 

8 lines

3 sections of four lines