Pierian spring
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See also: Pierian Spring
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From the spring of the Muses in Greek mythology.
Noun
Pierian spring (plural Pierian springs)
- (idiomatic, chiefly literary) The source of knowledge, inspiration, or learning.
- 1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: W Lewis ; and sold by W Taylor , T Osborn , and J Graves , →OCLC:
- A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring.
- 1817, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “The motives of the present work—Reception of the Author’s first publication—The discipline of his taste at school—The effect of contemporary writers on youthful minds—[William Lisle] Bowles’s sonnets—Comparison between the Poets before and since Mr. [Alexander] Pope”, in Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions, volume I, London: Rest Fenner, , →OCLC, pages 7–9:
- At school I enjoyed the inestimable advantage of a very sensible, though at the same time, a very severe master. […] [H]e showed no mercy to phrase, metaphor, or image, unsupported by a sound sense, or where the same sense might have been conveyed with equal force and dignity in plainer words. […] In fancy I can almost hear him now, exclaiming "Harp? Harp? Lyre? Pen and ink, boy, you mean! Muse, boy, Muse? Your Nurse's daughter, you mean! Pierian spring? Oh 'aye! the cloister-pump, I suppose!"
- 1892, Ambrose Bierce, “A Poet's Father”, in Black Beetles in Amber:
- […] a studious land
Where humming youth, intent upon the page,
Thirsting for knowledge with a noble rage,
Drink dry the whole Pierian spring
- 2009 January 2, Timothy W. Ryback, “First Chapter: Hitler’s Private Library”, in New York Times, retrieved 9 August 2015:
- For him the library represented a Pierian spring, that metaphorical source of knowledge and inspiration. He drew deeply there, quelling his intellectual insecurities and nourishing his fanatic ambitions.
Further reading
- “Pierian spring”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.