Date: 1773

"Fancy might now her silken pinions try  / To rise from earth, and sweep th' expanse on high"

— Wheatley, Phillis (c.1753–1784)

Date: 1773

"Winter austere forbids me to aspire, / And northern tempests damp the rising fire; / They chill the tides of Fancy's flowing sea, / Cease then, my song, cease the unequal lay."

— Wheatley, Phillis (c.1753–1784)

Date: 1773

"But if thou com'st with frown austere / To nurse the brood of care and fear; / To bid our sweetest passions die, / And leave us in their room a sigh; / Or if thine aspect stern have power / To wither each poor transient flower, / That cheers the pilgrimage of woe, / And dry the springs whence ho...

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1773

"Hail to pleasure's frolic train; / Hail to fancy's golden reign; / Festive mirth, and laughter wild, / Free and sportful as the child; / Hope with eager sparkling eyes, / And easy faith, and fond surprise: / Let these, in fairy colours drest, / Forever share my careless breast; / Then, tho' wise...

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1773

"Seiz'd in thought / On fancy's wild and roving wing I sail, / From the green borders of the peopled earth, / And the pale moon, her duteous fair attendant; / From solitary Mars; from the vast orb / Of Jupiter, whose huge gigantic bulk / Dances in ether like the lightest leaf; / To the dim verge,...

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1773

"But now my soul unus'd to stretch her powers / In flight so daring, drops her weary wing, / And seeks again the known accustom'd spot, / Drest up with sun, and shade, and lawns, and streams, / A mansion fair and spacious for its guest, / And full replete with wonders."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1773

"Nor blush, my fair, to own you copy these; / Your best, your sweetest empire is--to please."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1773

"Smooth like her verse her passions learned to move, / And her whole soul was harmony and love."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1773

"Virtue that breast without a conflict gained, / And easy, like a native monarch, reigned."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1773

"Now deep retired in Frome's enchanting vale, / She pours her tuneful sorrows on the gale; / Without one fond reserve the world disclaims, / And gives up all her soul to heavenly flames."

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)