ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a remarkable page from the novel that won the Prix de Goncourt in 1959, The Last of the Just, written by André Schwarz-Bart, whose Polish Jewish family was murdered by the Nazis. In the novel, a Hebrew legend frames the story of the Levy family over eight centuries, and the author tells of the method adopted by old Mordecai to give his little grandson Ernie a Jewish education while making learning enjoyable. Plato’s handling of the metaphor suggests that the making of poetry has to do with the physicality of sounds that are pleasing to the ear, just as honey delights the taste buds. More specifically, to describe the poetic chain as transmission of this materially delightful sonority, Plato suggests that honey-voiced sounds pour from the mouth of the singers into the ears of the listeners.
