I always thought they did a good job writing a song out of that topic. It may not be poetry put to music, but it's still decent...
It falls into the trap of being overly literal. They're not bad, but they're clumsy because I just don't think they're expressed very artfully.
I generally prefer poetic nonsense (Close to the Edge, for example) to a literal story (The Count of Tuscany) in music, so that's one reason why recent DT lyrics turn me off a lot. Conversely, I love the lyrics in their first two albums and most of Awake. It may just be a personal preference, I dunno. But The Great Debate is in line with their recent lyrics.
Now I mostly feel the same way. I'm a complete DT fanboy, and I love just about everything they've ever done.
While I don't hate any DT songs, there are several I don't like. But then, I don't pretend to be a Dream Theater fanboy. I just like five of their albums, think there's some good material on the other five, and that's pretty much it.
I do feel exactly that way for Spock's Beard, though. The only Spock's Beard song in either era that I find myself skipping over is "Distance to the Sun," which might be the most halfhearted ballad I have ever heard in my life. So I can certainly sympathize.
I chose those songs, because out of the entire DT discography, they are the very worst. FII (imo) was the worst album DT has created, purely because of the wild contrast between it's top songs, and it's worst songs. With songs like Peruvian Skies, Anna Lee and TOT, and all of a sudden those 5? it's just not right, and really highlights the fact that they were trying to go for a more mainstream sound (which I believe is the reason why they are sub-par)
I don't listen to FII much. Perhaps my opinion of it will change with time, but NOTHING on that album reaches out and grabs me like DT's other material does. It is my least favorite of their albums.
I don't mind DT's "mainstream" songs, though. They're often good. Status Seeker, Another Day, The Silent Man, and The Spirit Carries On are songs I listen to fairly often. I'm probably betraying my Spock's Beard fandom here as well, since that band mixed power pop with symphonic prog. I love a good melody. So yeah, I see a lot of people adding these accessible songs to their list, but in reality they're not that bad...and DT's had one on every album, so that's a good thing.
I probably lost some "prog cred" for that.