Date: 1679

"From Heav'n was with a Silver Cord let down, / And into the Souls mass divinely thrown, / To be its Salt, miraculously contriv'd"

— Woodford, Samuel (1636-1700)

Date: 1681

"Some livelier spark of heaven, and more refined / From earthly dross, fills the great poet's mind."

— Duke, Richard (1658-1711)

Date: 1681

"In Pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of Disgrace. / A fiery Soul, which working out its way, / Fretted the Pigmy-Body to decay; / And o'r inform'd the Tenement of Clay."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1684

"Nor were these Fruits in a rough Soil bestown / As Gemms are thick'st in rugged Quarries sown."

— Oldham, John (1653-1683)

Date: 1685

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

— Mason, John (1646?-1694)

Date: 1685

A "heaven-born mind" may have "no dross to purge from [its] rich ore"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1686

"Or coldness, worse than Steel, the Loyal heart doth wound"

— Killigrew, Anne (1660-1685)

Date: 1686

A " Heav'n-born Mind" may have "no Dross to purge from [its] Rich Ore:"

— Killigrew, Anne (1660-1685)

Date: 1687

"Each Note tun'd up the Soul, calcin'd the Mind, / Commenc'd them something more than humane kind; / Their very Bodies into-Souls refin'd."

— Heyrick, Thomas (bap. 1649. d. 1694)

Date: 1687

"Souls that can scarce ferment their mass of clay; / So drossy, so divisible are they, / As would but serve pure bodies for allay."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)