Date: 1714
"For if vast Thoughts shou'd play about a Mind / Inclos'd in Flesh, and dregging cumbrous Life, / Fluttering and beating in the mournful Cage, / It soon wou'd break its Grates and wing away."
preview | full record— Evans, Abel (1679-1737)
Date: 1718
"Affronted Reason stings us with Remorse, / Suggests the Danger and obstructs our Course."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1718
"Repeated Prostitutions conquer Shame, / Assure the Face, and struggling Reason tame."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1718
"Should you the Reins to guilty Passions give, / And to suppress reluctant Conscience strive, / You must maintain a long uncertain Field, / By Turns prevail, by Turns inglorious yield."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1718
"That dreadful Worm may long enchanted lie, / And roll'd in Volumes sleep, but cannot die; / Rousing at Times, indignant 'twill exert / Immortal Rage, and sting you to the Heart."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1721
"Bless God, who did not give our Soul / To their sharp Teeth a Prey."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1721
"Our Soul, as from a broken Snare / A Bird escapes, is fled."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1722
"When religious passions, namely, love, desire, hope and delight are exalted in the highest degree, and agitate the soul with the greatest vehemence, while reason presides as sovereign, holds the reins, and directs all their motions; this is so far from being a wild and extravagant temper of mind...
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: April 1750, 1791
"O what can words, / The weak interpreters of mortal thoughts, / Or what can thoughts (tho' wild of wing they rove / Thro' the vast concave of th'aetherial round) / If to the Heav'n of Heavens they'd win their way / Advent'rous, like the birds of night they're lost, / And delug'd in the flood of ...
preview | full record— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)
Date: April 1750, 1791
"Tho' gratitude were bless'd with all the pow'rs / Her bursting heart cou'd long for, tho' the swift, / The firey-wing'd imagination soar'd / Beyond ambition's wish--yet all were vain / To speak him as he is, who is INEFFABLE."
preview | full record— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)