11. One of the most famous couplets from Pope's "An Essay on Criticism" is the following: "A little learning is a dangerous thing; / drink deep, or taste not the Pierian ________" (lines 215-16). What word goes in this blank?
From Quiz To Write Aright: Pope's "Essay on Criticism"
Answer:
spring
The Pierian spring is a reference to the water flowing on Mount Olympus, a spring sacred to the Muses. Thus, the Pierian spring in Pope's poem becomes a metaphor for the source of knowledge and creative inspiration. His point is this: people are prideful, as he's already established, so once they get a little bit of knowledge about something, they conceitedly become know-it-alls. They become "drunk" so to speak on the little bit of knowledge they've imbibed, so their heads swell and they suddenly think they know everything. On the other hand, if they were to drink deeply, they would discover that there is an infinite amount of knowledge and that they know hardly any of all there is to know. As Socrates suggested, the wise man understands that he really knows nothing at all. Thus, Pope advises, "Drink deep, or taste not", for the man who knows little but thinks he knows a great deal is a dangerous man. He follows this couplet with another: "There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, / And drinking largely sobers us again" (lines 217-18). Most would, of course, believe that the more one drinks, the more inebriated one becomes; this is how drinking alcohol works. However, Pope wittily points out just the opposite with knowledge; the less one drinks of it, the drunker one becomes.
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