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, , 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 T 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— Bowles’s Sonnets—Comparison between the Poets before and since Mr. 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. 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.