Date: 1664

"Their Hearts are as hard, as Iron too, / As tough, but not so cold."

— Bold, Henry (1627-1683)

Date: 1682

"What subtle dart / Had you at first to penetrate my Heart, / Obdure as Steel."

— Coppinger, Matthew (fl. 1682)

Date: 1685

"One would have thought such melting Words / Should break an Heart of Steel."

— Mason, John (1646?-1694)

Date: 1693

"Had the too tender Gods first made / Men's Hearts as hard as Steel, / Their Weakness ne're had been betraid / By ev'ry stroak they feel."

— Hawkshaw, Benjamin (1671/2-1738)

Date: 1707

"Our Heart, that flinty stubborn thing, / That Terrors cannot move, / That fears no threatenings of his Wrath, / Shall be dissolv'd by Love."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1739

"May all English Lads, like you, Boys, / Prove on Shore true Hearts of Gold; / To their King and Country true"

— Phillips, Edward (b. 1708/9)

Date: 1748

"the Persian Bands / In fearful Wonder ask; What God unseen / Such Pow'r bestow'd, and steel'd a Woman's Heart"

— Warton, Thomas, the elder (1688-1745)

Date: 1789, 1794

"In every cry of every Man / In every Infants cry of fear / In every voice; in every ban / The mind-forg'd manacles I hear."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1794

" The Human Face, a Furnace seal'd / The Human Heart, its hungry Gorge."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1819

"Nor cleed your little heart in steel, / For Nature bade the lintie feel"

— Gall, Richard (1776-1801)