Date: 1798 [1797?]
"OFT when the bosom glows with wild desire, / And flatt'ring fancy fans the rising fire; / When self-opinion with seducing phrase, / To conscious merit whispers conscious praise." "Thus more strange fancies stock an English head, / Than e'er the brains of other nations bred."
preview | full record— Jones, Jenkin [Captain] (fl. 1798)
Date: 1803
"But, wishing to enrich me more, to fill / My mind with treasure, led'st me far away / From city din to deep retreats, to banks / And streams Aonian, and, with free consent, / Didst place me happy at Apollo's side."
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1814, 1816, 1896
"Thoughts, like Churl's corn, in chamber'd stores entomb'd, / Devour'd by vermin, or, decay, consum'd; / Whose fruits might food, or opulence, afford; / Enrich the Rich, or bless the poor Man's board."
preview | full record— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)
Date: 1817
"When some bright thought has darted through my brain: / Through all that day I've felt a greater pleasure / Than if I'd brought to light a hidden treasure."
preview | full record— Keats, John (1795-1821)
Date: 1818
"I knew, I knew / There was a place untenanted in it: / In that same void white Chastity shall sit, / And monitor me nightly to lone slumber"
preview | full record— Keats, John (1795-1821)
Date: 1838
"Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards, / And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul."
preview | full record— Keats, John (1795-1821)
Date: 1850
"Those lovely forms / Had also left less space within my mind, / Which, wrought upon instinctively, had found / A freshness in those objects of her love, / A winning power, beyond all other power."
preview | full record— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)
Date: 1903
"When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men's minds may take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of the brimming mind."
preview | full record— Wickham, E. C. (1834-1910); Quintus Horatius Flaccus [Horace] (65 BC - 8 BC)
Date: 1922
"The joy in your maturity at length, / The peace that filled my soul like cooling wine, / When you responded to my tender strength, / And pressed your heart exulting into mine."
preview | full record— McKay, Claude (1889-1948)
Date: 1929
"Goldsmith deliberately sipping at the honey-pot of his mind."
preview | full record— Yeats, W. B. (1865-1939)