Pierian Spring

Pierian Spring*

“A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.” - Alexander Pope

                                             Mural and Poem by Abe V Rotor

The Hills are Alive Mural, by AVR 2009. Courtesy of University of Santo Tomas, 

Office of the Vice Rector and Secretary General

Pierian Spring, the fountain of youth -

could it be just down the bend,

or on mythical Mt Olympus?

How many souls have long sought

in their lifetime and lost at the end!

It could it be the Shangri-La, the Atlantis;

it could it be the biblical Paradise,

the heaven of the good in God's promise,

in the afterlife that rewards the pure

in spirit - who shall again rise.

Little do we know, nil can we afford,

in our searching, for time and space

are but a tick in the clock of the world;

a dot in the infinite universe,

a step in its ever increasing race.

Pierian Spring is the triumph of good

over evil, the trophy of victory;

peace in War and Peace as Tolstoy told,

in the finer things of life and living,

in a beautiful tapestry.

For youth lives forever in the mind

and heart that throbs with humanity -

seeking, believing, loving and kind,

keeping the Pierian Spring flowing

to touch every being in a bind.~

* In Greek mythology, the Pierian Spring of Macedonia was sacred to the Pierides and the Muses. As the metaphorical source of knowledge of art and science, it was popularized by a couplet in Alexander Pope's 1711 poem "An Essay on Criticism": "A little learning is a dang'rous thing; / Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring." The sacred spring was said to be near ancient Leivithra in Pieria, a region of ancient Macedonia, also the location of Mount Olympus, and believed to be the home and the seat of worship of Orpheus. The Muses "were said to have frolicked about the Pierian springs soon after their birth". The spring is believed to be a fountain of knowledge that inspires whoever drinks from it. Acknowledgement: Wikipedia, Internet