Date: 1651

"And as the Grindstone to unpolish'd Steel / Gives Edge, and Lustre: so my Mind, I feel / VVhetted, and glaz'd by Fortunes turning VVheel"

— Sherburne, Sir Edward (bap. 1616, d. 1702)

Date: 1657

"But like true steel my heart doth pant, / To touch the long'd for Adamant."

— Bold, Henry (1627-1683)

Date: 1662

The "active soul doth not consume with rust"

— Watkyns, Rowland (c. 1614-1664)

Date: 1664

"Their Hearts are as hard, as Iron too, / As tough, but not so cold."

— Bold, Henry (1627-1683)

Date: 1667

"Nor could they trouble us, but that our mind / Hath its own glory unto dross confin'd."

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1667

"So Age and Death by slow approches come, / And by that just inevitable doom / By which the Soul (her cloggy dross once gone) / Puts on Perfection, and resumes her own."

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

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: 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)