[print edition page number: 279]

Jane Barker

A Farewell to Poetry, with a Long Digression on Anatomy

From Poetical Recreations, Part I (1688)^[1]

Farewell, my gentle friend, kind poetry,
For we no longer must acquaintance be;
Though sweet and charming to me as thou art,
Yet I must dispossess thee of my heart.
On new acquaintance now I must dispense                      5
What I received from thy^[2] bright influence.
Wise Aristotle^[3] and Hippocrates,^[4]
Galen,^[5] and the most wise Socrates,
Aesculapius,^[6] whom first I should have named,
And all Apollo’s younger brood so famed,                      10
Are they with whom I must acquaintance make,
Who will, no doubt, receive me for the sake [280]
Of him,^[7] from whom they did expect to see
New lights to search nature’s obscurity.
Now, Bartholine,^[8] the first of all this crew,                   15
Does to me nature’s architecture shew;^[9]
He tells me how th’ foundation first is laid
Of earth, how pillars of strong bones are made;
How th’ walls consist of carneous parts within,
The outside pinguid,^[10] overlaid with skin;                    20
The fretwork,^[11] muscles, arteries, and veins,
With their implexures,^[12] and how from the brains
The nerves descend; and how they do dispense
To every member, motive^[13] power and sense;
He shows what windows in this structure’s fixed,        25
How trebly glazed,^[14] and curtains drawn betwixt
Them and earth’s objects; all which probes in vain
To keep out lust, and innocence retain.
For ’twas the eye that first discerned the food,^[15]
As pleasing to itself, then thought it good                      30
To eat, as being informed it would refine
The half-wise soul, and make it all divine.
But ah, how dearly wisdom’s bought with sin,
Which shuts out grace, lets death and darkness in!
And because we precipitated^[16] first,                               35
To pains and ignorance are most accursed;
Even by our counterparts, who that they may [281]
Exalt themselves, insultingly will say,
“Women know little, and they practice less;
But pride and sloth they glory to profess.”                      40
But as we were expatiating thus,
Wallis and Harvey^[17] cried, “Madam, follow us!”
They brought me to the first and largest court^[18]
Of all this building, whereas to a port,
All necessaries are brought in from far                            45
For sustentation^[19] both in peace and war.
For war this commonwealth does oft infest,
Which pillages this part, and storms the rest.
We viewed the kitchen called ventriculus,^[20]
Then passed we through the space called pylorus;^[21]  50
And to the dining-room we came at last,
Where the lacteans^[22] take their sweet repast.
From thence we through a drawing-room did pass
And came where Madam Jecur^[23] busy was,
Sanguificating^[24] the whole mass of chyle,                    55
And severing the cruoral parts from bile.^[25] [282]
And when she’s made it tolerably good,
She pours it forth to mix with other blood.
This and much more we saw; from thence we went
Into the next court,^[26] by a small ascent.                        60
“Bless me,” said I, “what rarities are here!”
A fountain like a furnace did appear,
Still boiling o’er, and running out so fast
That one should think its efflux^[27] could not last;
Yet it sustained no loss as I could see,                              65
Which made me think it a strange prodigy.^[28]
“Come on,” says Harvey, “don’t stand gazing here,
But follow me, and I thy doubts will clear.”
Then we began our journey with the blood,
Traced the meanders of its purple flood.                         70
Thus we through many labyrinths did pass,
In such, I’m sure, old Daedalus^[29] n’er was;
Sometimes i’th’ out-works,^[30] sometimes i’th’ first court;
Sometimes i’th’ third^[31] these winding streams would sport
Themselves; but here methought I needs must stay     75
And listen next to what the artists say:
“Here’s cavities,” says one, “and here,” says he,
“Is th’ seat of fancy, judgment, memory.”^[32]
“Here,” says another, “is the fertile womb,
From whence the spirits animal^[33] do come,                80
Which are mysteriously engendered here,
Of spirits from arterious blood and air.”
“Here,” said a third, “life made her first approach,
Moving the wheels of her triumphant coach.”
“Hold there,” said Harvey, “that must be denied;         85
’Twas in the deaf ear on the dexter side.”^[34][283]
Then there arose a trivial small dispute,^[35]
Which he by fact and reason did confute.
Which being ended, we began again
Our former journey, and forsook the brain.                   90
And after some small traverses about,
We came to th’ place where we at first set out.
Then I perceived how all this magic stood
By th’ circles of the circulating blood,
As fountains have their waters from the sea,                  95
To which again they do themselves convey.
But here we find great Lower^[36] by this art,
Surveying the whole structure of the heart.
“Welcome,” said he, “sweet cousin,^[37] are you here,
Sister to him^[38] whose worth we all revere?                100
But ah, alas, so cruel was his fate,
As makes us since almost our practice hate;
Since we could find out naught in all our art,
That could prolong the motion of his heart.”