In one's Garret-Closet one's Muse may "take Possession": "Poetry being one of those subtle Devils, that if driven out by never so many firm Purposes, good Resolutions, Aversion to that Poverty it intails upon its Adherents; yet it will always return and find a Passage to the Heart, Brain, and whole Interior"

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Author

Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Work Title

A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies; or Love and Virtue Recommended

Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for E. Curll and T. Payne
Date
1723
Metaphor
In one's Garret-Closet one's Muse may "take Possession": "Poetry being one of those subtle Devils, that if driven out by never so many firm Purposes, good Resolutions, Aversion to that Poverty it intails upon its Adherents; yet it will always return and find a Passage to the Heart, Brain, and whole Interior"
Metaphor in Context
Thus, Madam, in my Garret-Closet, my Muse again took Possession of me: Poetry being one of those subtle Devils, that if driven out by never so many firm Purposes, good Resolutions, Aversion to that Poverty it intails upon its Adherents; yet it will always return and find a Passage to the Heart, Brain, and whole Interior; as I experienced in this my exalted Study: Or, to (use the Phrase of the Poets) my Closet in the Star-Chamber; or the Den of Parnassus.
(p. 66)
Categories
Architecture::Passage
Provenance
Searching in "mind" and "interio" in HDIS (Prose)
Citation
Only one entry in the ESTC (1723).

A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies; or Love and Virtue Recommended: In a Collection of Instructive Novels. Related After a Manner Intirely New, and Interspersed with Rural Poems, describing the Innocence of a Country-Life. By Mrs. Jane Barker, of Wilsthorp, near Stamford, in Lincolnshire (London: Printed for E. Curll and T. Payne, 1723.) <Link to ECCO> <Link to Google>
Theme
Interiority
Date of Entry
08/09/2005

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.