Plato speaks of the Republic as a blueprint for a utopian society built on the innate goodness of man. Therefore, it establishes strict guidelines for which this society must function, cultivating children's education as the main stepping stone that filters out the unnecessary and preparing them with the necessities to become rational; citizen. An important position, Plato repeatedly mentions, is the unnecessary idea that poetry be exposed to children first even before it is inculcated in a child's curriculum. I believe that Plato is correct in that poetry has only a negative influence, through his reasoning Plato details the efforts of this art form and the repercussions that extend from it within the Republic. He considers poetry evil because it is not a form with real value, but an improper form at the bottom of the hierarchy of forms that promotes evil. Subsequently, Plato theorizes that poetry is an imitation of truth and is immoral. Finally, poetry has a harmful effect on the soul, in a society where the aim is to purify it, so that it can serve the state. To begin with, Plato's moral objection through education is the pursuit of the good, and art, especially poetry produces ignorance. Considering that Plato states that poetry is a distant third from the truth, along the chain of forms (i.e. beauty – concept of beauty – entities of beauty – imitations of beauty) it entails increasing possibilities of inaccuracies due to errors of human perception. Plato's epistemology that the universe is perfect in forms, and humans are not, therefore humans are prone to errors due to not full knowledge of the ideal (Plato, R, 461). Humans are only scratching the surface to achieve perfection in an impermanent world. Plato also mentions...... middle of paper ......and only because it creates prejudice, another reason why Plato wants to ban poets and censor poetry. In conclusion, I believe that Plato is right in believing that poetry only has diseased influences. Plato's metaphysics states that humans live in a lower form of reality than the Universe of Forms and therefore humans are limited within this tangible world to perform human-like acts, which are not perfect but can try to be. The interviewees would not be able to distinguish what is real (in the Republic) and what is not, because they would believe that poets are the knowers of all things. There would be no other reason for poets to write so eloquently that they stir people's hearts. This is the problem, that the Republic can function according to Plato's strategy; Poets should not be allowed because they discourage reason by emotionally influencing this utopian society.