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Date: 1715

"Shall thy Soul / Still scorn the World, still flie the Joys that court / Thy blooming Beauty, and thy tender Youth? / Still shall she soar on Contemplation's Wing, / And mix with nothing meaner than the Stars; / As Heaven and Immortality alone / Were Objects worthy to employ her Faculties."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

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Date: 1717

"So very well Sweetheart; I am mightily troubled with Phlegm--od I took it a little too high for my Constitution, but every time I look upon you, I fancy my self but Eighteen, and my Heart springs in my Belly like a Bird in a Cage."

— Bullock, Christopher (bap. 1690, d. 1722)

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Date: First performed February 17, 1720.

"No more--thou waken'st in my tortur'd Heart / The cruel conscious Worm that stings to Madness. / O I'm undone!--I know it, and can bear / To be undone for thee, but not to lose thee."

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

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Date: April 18, 1721

"If thou dost love me, I shall fill thy Heart / With Scorpion's Stings."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

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Date: April 18, 1721

"Oh, what a Pain to think! when every Thought, / Perplexing Thought in Intricacies runs, / And Reason knits th'inextricable Toil / In which her self is taken. I am lost, / Poor Insect that I am, I am involv'd, / And bury'd in the Web my self have wrought."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

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Date: April 18, 1721

"Can I not rouze the Snake that's in his Bosom, / To Sting out human Nature, and effect it?"

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

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Date: February 22, 1723

"My favours shall deface the memory / Of past afflictions: on a soul secure / In native innocence, or grief or joy / Shou'd make no deeper prints than air retains; / Where fleet alike the vulture and the dove, / And leave no trace."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

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Date: February 22, 1723

"We cheat the world / With florid outside 'till we meet surprize; / Then conscience, working inward like a mole, / Crumbles the surface, and reveals the dirt / From which our actions spring."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

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Date: February 22, 1723

'Tis in vain to boast / That reason o'er the passions holds the rein, / When quite unman'd with such a tale."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

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Date: February 22, 1723

"The balm of sleep / Can ne'er refresh these eyes, 'till the pale hand / Of death shall draw their curtains, and exclude / The busy buzzing swarm of stinging thoughts."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.