To Calliope, Chief of the Nine Muses

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Calliope, the Muse in Greek mythology who presides over eloquence and epic poetry. The eldest of the Nine Muses, her name literally means "beautiful-voiced." Hesiod and Ovid called her the "Chief of all Muses."

My muse sighs and leaves me unwell and cuckolds me like faithless love as if she's ne'er my god or belle, afflatus or creative breath who came from the summits above to save me from poetic death! "Why go, O Calliope!?" I yell; her leaving brings about such woe and inexpressible sorrow that's too profound, too deep to tell: I pray to Zeus I'll never know this Melancholia of hell! My muse sighs and takes leave of me,— I yell, "Why go, O Calliope!?

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