Dictionary

Pierian spring en · NOUN

Etymology

From the spring of the Muses in Greek mythology.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic, literary) The source of knowledge, inspiration, or learning.
   • 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!" 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:
   • 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. 2009 January 2, Timothy W. Ryback, “First Chapter: Hitler’s Private Library”, in New York Times, retrieved 09 Aug 2015:
   • A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring. 1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC:
   • […] a studious land Where humming youth, intent upon the page, Thirsting for knowledge with a noble rage, Drink dry the whole Pierian spring 1892, Ambrose Bierce, “A Poet's Father”, in Black Beetles in Amber:

Forms