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Call upon them at your peril.
The Muse of Song may sound sweet as a nightingale and pretty as a rose, but beware the beak and beware those thorns. Compose your music through pain and sing through the tears but do not speak his name lest he hears. For when he visits, he will bring you melodies and an ear for the clearest note, but idly hum his tune and it will burrow into your every moment. Sleep shall not find you, not with this endless refrain; it matters not how you attempt to drown this strain, it survives in the deepest quiet and the loudest din.
Do not think to call on the Muse of Dance. Find your feet yourself, do not stray from the path of stumbled steps and awkwardness, for if you find your way onto his shores, lured by the dance of the waves and the sway of foam, by the laugh that warms you like the fires of home, you are lost. Do not take his hand, you are not meant to be his partner, try to follow his rhythm and beat and you will not falter, but your arms will ache and your feet will crumble. You will long for a moment of peace, but rest will never find you.
Last but deadliest, call not on the Muse of Drama. Keep council with your fellows, practice and prepare with long nights in the company of memory, and face the audience with your own heart, look not to the wings in desperate hope of a saving grace. For he will come, afore you ever say his name and merely entertain the thought, an actor’s darkest minute and you are already caught. He will give you truths, plumb the depths of your soul for your barest essence, for that grain of sand to turn to pearl and polish to the same luster as his quicksilver eyes, as shining as they are poisonous. You will think the candor freeing, the passion coming easily to your heart and your words will bring others to weep with understanding. Your whole world a stage, and you can reach the edge no more. The curtains will never fall for you again, forever a performer, no longer your own person in the end.
Call upon them at your peril, for their blessings and curses are much the same.