Date: 1784

Ah! poor humanity! so frail, so fair, / Are the fond visions of thy early day, / Till tyrant passion, and corrosive care, / Bid all thy fairy colours fade away!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1784

"Ah! season of delight!--could aught be found / To soothe awhile the tortur'd bosom's pain, / Of Sorrow's rankling shaft to cure the wound, / And bring life's first delusions once again, / 'Twere surely met in thee!."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1784

"Whate'er my destiny may be, / That faithful heart, still burns for thee!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1784

Go, cruel tyrant of the human breast! / To other hearts, thy burning arrows bear; / Go, where fond hope, and fair illusion rest!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1784

"I hurry forward, passion's helplesss slave! And scorning reason's mild and sober light, / Pursue the path that leads me to the grave!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1784

"Not death itself thine empire can destroy; / Towards thee, even then, we turn the languid eye; / Still trust in thee to bid our memory bloom, / And scatter roses round the silent tomb."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1784

"'Tis in Clarinda's charming mind, / The sweet attraction lies; / There all that fire and life we find, / That sparkles in her eyes."

— Fenn [née Frere], Ellenor (1744-1813)

Date: 1784

"Till with care the garden of the mind."

— Fenn [née Frere], Ellenor (1744-1813)

Date: 1784

"As a piece of ground which is negligently cultivated, produces abundance of noxious weeds, so in the soul of an indolent man over-run with numberless vicious passions."

— Fenn [née Frere], Ellenor (1744-1813)

Date: 1784

"Blest is yon shepherd, on the turf reclin'd, / Who on the varied clouds which float above / Lies idly gazing--while his vacant mind / Pours out some tale antique of rural love!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)