Date: 1788
"Ah, not alone of power possest / To check each virtue of the breast; / As when the numbing frosts arise / The charm of vegetation dies."
preview | full record— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)
Date: 1788
"His sway the harden'd bosom leads / To Cruelty's remorseless deeds; / Like the blue lightning when it springs / With fury on its livid wings, / Darts to its goal with baleful force, / Nor heeds that ruin marks its course."
preview | full record— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)
Date: 1788
"On Eloquence, prevailing art! / Whose force can chain the list'ning heart; / The throb of Sympathy inspire, / And kindle every great desire; / With magic energy controul / And reign the sov'reign of the soul!"
preview | full record— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)
Date: 1790, 1806
"Proud may he be who nobly acts his part, / Who boasts the empire of each subject's heart."
preview | full record— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)
Date: 1790
"Yet what infuses his mind unstain'd and pure? / Nurtur'd in venal, sycophantic schools-- / Eras'd each sterling virtue of the soul-- / Debas'd--new coin'd in flattery's servile mint, / He may become a pander to a prince."
preview | full record— Warren, Mercy Otis (1728-1814)
Date: 1793
"For what is sleep, but temporary death; / Sealing up all the windows of the soul, / And binding ev'ry thought in torpid chains?"
preview | full record— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)
Date: 1793
"But, most of all, [the mind is subject] to that lov'd voice, whose thrill, / Rushing impetuous through each throbbing vein, / Dilates the wond'ring mind, and frees its pow'rs / From the cold chains of icy apathy / To all the vast extremes of bliss and pain!"
preview | full record— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)
Date: 1793
"In fancy's mirror dreadful scenes appear, / Design'd by doubt, and magnified by fear, / There some gay female, frivolous and vain, / Artfully forms the captivating chain; / Makes him the slave of passion and caprice, / Perverts his principles, and wounds his peace."
preview | full record— Burrell [née Raymond, later Clay], Sophia, Lady Burrell (1750-1802)
Date: 1794
"Each man of sense, you'll find disdain / To drag coquetry's galling chain. / 'Tis prudence, truth, good sense, my dear, / That makes the lamp of love burn clear; / These are the silken cords, that bind / The Lover's, and the Husband's mind."
preview | full record— Pointon, Priscilla [AKA Priscilla Pickering] (c. 1740-1801)
Date: 1796
"My sons, if rich, might wield / The fan emblaz'd with Psyche and her boy / O'er some enchantress, whose contagious sighs / Would blast the best impression of their souls."
preview | full record— Yearsley, Ann (bap. 1753, d. 1806)