Date: 1738

"Thy skill my elemental Clay refin'd, / The straggling Parts in beauteous Order join'd, / With perfect Symmetry compos'd the whole, / And stampt thy sacred Image on my Soul."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1738

"Whate'er we think on't, Forune's but a Toy, / Which cheats the Soul with empty Shows of Joy; / A mere ideal Creature of the Brain, / That reigns the Idol of the Mad and Vain; / Deludes their Senses with a fair Disguise, / And sets an airy Bliss before their Eyes."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1741

"Poor Mind, who heard all with extreme moderation, / Thought it now time to speak, and make her allegation: / ''Tis I that, methinks, have most cause to complain, / Who am cramped and confined like a slave in a chain.'"

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1741

"'I've a friend,' answers Mind, 'who, though slow, is yet sure, / And will rid me at last of your insolent power: / Will knock down your walls, the whole fabric demolish, / And at once your strong holds and my slavery abolish: / And while in your dust your dull ruins decay, / I'll snap off my cha...

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1746; December 17, 1747 [actually January, 1748]

"The Passions ceas’d their loud alarms, / And Virtue’s soft persuasive charms / O’er all their senses stole."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: w. 1739, 1762

"Ye faithless Idols of our Sense, / Here own how vain your fond Pretence, / Ye empty Names of Joy!"

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: w. 1748, 1762

"In Silence hush'd, to Reason's Voice, / Attends each mental Pow'r."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1762

"If by the Day's illusive Scenes misled, / My erring Soul from Virtue’s Path has stray'd; / Snar'd by example, or by Passion warm'd, / Some false Delight my giddy Sense has charm'd, / My calmer Thoughts the wretched Choice reprove, / And my best Hopes are center'd in thy Love."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1762

"But long e'er Paphos rose, or Poet sung, / In heav'nly Breasts the sacred Passion sprung: / The same bright Flames in raptur'd Seraphs glow, / As warm consenting Tempers here below.

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1762

"Unreal Fantoms, empty void of Pow’r, / Borne on the fleeting Pinions of an Hour! / Desert in Death the disappointed Mind, / Nor leave a Trace of Happiness behind!"

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)