Date: 1653

"Sad melancholy Thoughts are for Shadowes plac'd, / By which the lighter Fancies are more grac'd."

— Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)

Date: 1653

"Thoughts are for Shadowes plac'd, / By which the lighter Fancies are more graced. / As through a dark, and watry Cloud, more bright, / The Sun breakes forth with his Resplendent Light. / Or like to Night's black Mantle, where each Star / Doth clearer seem, so lighter Fancies are."

— Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)

Date: 1653

"Some like to Rain-bowes various Colours shew, / So round the Braine Fantastick Fancies grow."

— Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)

Date: 1653

"Deare Brother, thy Idea in my mind doth lye, / And is intomb'd in my sad memory."

— Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)

Date: 1653

"My heart the fire, whose flames are ever pure, / Laid on Loves Altar last, till life endure."

— Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)

Date: 1653

"So Fancy is the Soul in Poetrie, / And if not good, a Poem ill must be."

— Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)

Date: 1653

"If flattering Language all the Passions rule, / Then Sense, I feare, will be a meere dull Foole."

— Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)

Date: 1653

"A Poet I am neither borne, nor bred,/ But to a witty Poet married: / Whose Braine is Fresh, and Pleasant, as the Spring, / Where Fancies grow, and where the Muses sing."

— Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)

Date: 1653

"When we of childish toys do think, a fair / May be in th' brain, where crowds of fairies are, / And in each stall may all such knacks be sold, / As rattles, bells, or bracelets made of gold; / Pins, whistles, and the like may be brought there, / And thus within the head may be a fair."

— Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)

Date: 1653

"And some place may in th' head be hung with black, / Which makes us dull, yet know not what we lack."

— Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)