Pierian spring
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, Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism:
- A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing;
- Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring.
- 1817, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, chapter 1, in Biographia Literaria:
- At school, (Christ's Hospital,) I enjoyed the inestimable advantage of a very sensible, though at the same time, a very severe master, the Reverend James Bowyer. . . . [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 Jan. 2, Timothy W. Ryback, "First Chapter: Hitler’s Private Library," New York Times (retrieved 9 Aug 2015):
- For him the library represented a Pierian spring. . . . He drew deeply there, quelling his intellectual insecurities and nourishing his fanatic ambitions.
-
Further reading
- Pierian spring at OneLook Dictionary Search
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.