Plato's love for poetry

Plato is a pessimist. He kept mentioning his distaste for poetry because it enhanced emotion? I had no idea that it was bad to cry or laugh or simply be amused. The most delicious part of life is pleasure and happiness and why not have it without a cost. Sure, I will credit the fact that poetry is unrealistic and as he mentioned, it was all lies, but the farthest one could get from the realism is through non-realism. What was also condratictory in my view was that in Plato's Ion and The Republic 2, Plato was able to make Socrates that he was correct all the time and made Ion a calm, "yes-master" character. Is that not unrealistic? He gave Socrates a chance to big rants while the character to which he was speaking with was always "yes" and "no."

Interpreting a text

In my opinion, when I interpret a text I like to attempt to understand it on my own and then try to aquire some outside source such as a biography about it or a different type of criticism. I do want to be origianl and have my own ideas of it, but it is important to also acknowledge diverse opinions and interpretations of such text to see how many have the same interpretation or have a different interpretation that you never even thought of. It also helps if perhaps you have a vague idea of the text or none at all, to get some history on it. When you look for more sources for a certain text you gain more knowledge because you have aquired not only your own interpretation but ideas that others have validly pointed out.