Date: 1777

"The greedy Creditor, whose flinty breast / The iron hand of Avarice hath press'd, / Who never own'd Humanity's soft claim"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1777

"Where dwells the soul against Compassion steel'd, / Or who disdains the generous tear to yield?"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1783

"In lucent words my darkling verses dight, / And wash my earthy mind in thy clear streams,"

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1783

"O sheathe their hearts with triple steel, that they / May emulate their fathers' virtues"

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1786

"But if (which Pow'rs above prevent) / That iron-hearted carl, Want, / Attended, in his grim advances, / By sad mistakes, and black mischances"

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: 1787-1818

"The countless gold of a merry heart / The rubies & pearls of a loving eye / The indolent never can bring to the mart / Nor the secret hoard up in his treasury"

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: w. 1787-1818

"You say reserve & modesty he has / Whose heart is iron his head wood & his face brass."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1788

"For Virtue, with divine controul, / Collects the various powers of soul; / And lends, from her unsullied source, / The gems of thought their purest force."

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)

Date: 1788

"True courage in the unconquer'd soul / Yields to Compassion's mild controul; / As, the resisting frame of steel / The magnet's secret force can feel."

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)

Date: 1788

"Or, if where savage habit steels / The vulgar mind, one bosom feels / The sacred claim of helpless woe-- / If Pity in that soil can grow; / Pity! whose tender impulse darts / With keenest force on nobler hearts; / As flames that purest essence boast, / Rise highest when they tremble most."

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)