Date: 1785

"From shadows thinner than the fleeting night / That floats along the vale, or haply seems / To wrap the mountain in its hazy vest, / (Which the first sun-beam dissipates in air.) / How dost thou conjure monsters which ne'er mov'd / But in the chaos of thy frenzied brain!"

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1788

"An healing balm to thy warp'd sense she brings, / Till from her softness magic comfort springs, / And joys which reason with a frown denies, / Her tender pity with a smile supplies."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1788

"Fires not the social blood within your veins, / To make the White Man feel the Negro's pains? / Beat not your hearts the miscreant arms to bind, / Of the proud Christian with a savage mind?"

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1802

"Blest mirror! which can thus, with magic pow'r, / Give the rank weed the fragrance of the flow'r; / And from deformities,--without, within, / Spots in the mind, or specks upon the skin-- / Can all that's good, and all that's fair reflect, / And change to beauty, every dark defect."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1805

"Your Worth and Talents will unfold, / Richer than Needlework of Gold; / The native treasures of the soul, / True--as the Needle to the Pole."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1805

"And the gay vein of sportive Sense / Enrich'd by sterling Innocence; / Th'undrossy treasures of the Mind / Good-humour'd, graceful, and refin'd; / And, rivalling the Seers of old, / Whate'er you touch transmutes to Gold."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1805

"[N]or shall the heav'n-born mind / Oblivious linger in the silent cave / Of endless hopeless sleep"

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)