O, Muse Divine! Guide Thou My Soul and Pen

O, Muse divine! guide thou my soul and pen,
inspire me to divine song and rhythm,
to sing tales of Greek gods and thewy men,
now carved in ancient, history-bending prism.

Grant me Apollo's sky-searing chariot,
so like a scorching sun that sears the earth,
I may ascend to heights of poet's fame,
in Mount Parnassus's sacred, watery hearth.

But if divine impulse thou must withhold,
then may my measure's rhyme not be forsaken,
and instead may thy grace for me unfold,
so words of gold and gems be not untaken.

O Muse! Let me drink from the Pierian springs,
so thy sweet strains might move both gods and kings.



Sonnet by Ngoc Nguyen The PoetBay support member heart!
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Written on 2026-07-29 at 09:21

Tags Muse  Apollo  Parnassus 

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Clara Mae Gregory The PoetBay support member heart!
This beautiful poetry brings to mind some basic, philosophical questions.
What is a muse?
And what purpose does the resulting work possess?

Personally, I think of it as a circuit with a circuit breaker, where the literature is the breaker that completes the circuit-it turns one on in completing that bond. But if no one else can read it, what good is it, except to yourself. It has value, even so.

Inspiration is real because it is a living feeling in your heart, even if no one is there to hear the sound. [This deep idea touches on the famous philosophical question about a falling tree making a sound in an empty forest.]
Another way to dee this idea is in the sound of the bugle.
In the physical world, sound is just moving air until an ear catches it and changes it into a thought. A bugle still pushes the air forward and makes waves, whether a person is standing near it or not.
Internally, inspiration is a spark that changes how you think and act, so it is fully real to you.
Externally, true beauty and energy exist on their own, waiting for creation by another for someone else to find them out there in this beautiful, vast and diverse world of ours.
2026-07-29