Date: 1907

"Could I but think, on this same day, / She would with some Contrition pray, / That never she again would take / A Captive Heart or Conquest make."

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: 1931

"My Waxen heart, when near the Flame, / Yields to th' imprinted mould" but "hardens in the Cold"

— Tickell, Thomas (1685-1740)

Date: 1936

"The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews."

— Auden, W. H. (1907-1973)

Date: 1937

"Figure on her waxen mind / Images of life refin'd."

— Philips, Ambrose (1674-1749)

Date: 1940

"The provinces of his body revolted, / The squares of his mind were empty, / Silence invaded the suburbs, / The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers."

— Auden, W. H. (1907-1973)

Date: 1953

"Should poets bicycle-pump the human heart / Or squash it flat?"

— Amis, Kingsley (1922-1995)

Date: 1959

"The heart's tough shell is still to crack / When, spent of all its wine and bread, / Unwinkingly the altar lies / Wreathed in its sour breath, cold and dead, / A server has put out its eyes."

— Hill, Geoffrey (b. 1932)