Date: 1784

Ah! poor humanity! so frail, so fair, / Are the fond visions of thy early day, / Till tyrant passion, and corrosive care, / Bid all thy fairy colours fade away!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1784

Go, cruel tyrant of the human breast! / To other hearts, thy burning arrows bear; / Go, where fond hope, and fair illusion rest!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1784

"I hurry forward, passion's helplesss slave! And scorning reason's mild and sober light, / Pursue the path that leads me to the grave!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1788

"Where her ruling passions, (the love of admiration and excessive vanity) did not interfere, she was sometimes generous and sometimes friendly."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1788

"Emmeline was unable to reply; and Miss Galton finding no gratification to her curiosity, which, mingled with envious malignity, had long been her ruling passion, was obliged to quit the unhappy Emmeline; which was indeed the only favour she could do her."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1788

"But you, who feel not any portion of the flame that devours me, can cooly argue, while my heart is torn in pieces; and deign not even to make any allowance for the unguarded sallies of unconquerable passion!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1789

"Thee Queen of Shadows! [Fancy]--shall I still invoke, / Still love the scenes thy sportive pencil drew, / When on mine eyes the early radiance broke / Which shew'd the beauteous, rather than the true!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1789

"Alas! these joys are mine in dreams alone, / When cruel Reason abdicates her throne!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1791, 1792

"For thou to me canst sov'reign bliss impart, / Thy mind my empire--and my throne thy heart."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1800

"So the schemes / Rais'd by fond Hope in youth's unclouded morn, / While sanguine youth enjoys delusive dreams, / Experience withers; till scarce one remains / Flattering the languid heart, where only Reason reigns!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)