POEMS: Eros Mutatus • To the Red Cross Workers • Reflections • A Prayer at Pentecost • To My Grandchildren • A Modern Odyssey • Ephemerids • Bernini’s David • Socrates’ Exhortation • Ted Kaczynski: Unabomber • To Dante • A Faustian Bargain • At the Crossroad • A Modern Eden Is the Bible Belt • The Third Temptation • Prometheos Revisited

Socrates’ Exhortation

Spurning those rewards to which most pay heed,
I only wish to know what’s true and right,
and to live and die as well as I might,
and to the limits of my power, I plead
with all to do the same, and join with me
in this endeavor, a struggle which, indeed,
surpasses any other in degree.

Follow me, and as our dialogue has shown,
I’ll take you where you will be happy here
and after death; moreover, don’t bemoan
your fate when meeting insult or a sneer,
but let them strike you, and be of good cheer,
for never can another truly hurt you,
if you pursue the discipline of virtue.

From Plato’s Gorgias

Through Self’s Veneer

Foreword

About Robert J. Nolan

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