Date: 1773
"Now here, now there, the roving Fancy flies, / Till some lov'd objects strikes her wand'ring eyes, / Whose silken fetters all the senses bind, / And soft captivity involves the mind."
preview | full record— Wheatley, Phillis (c.1753–1784)
Date: November 9, 1779
"Thus, conscience freed from ev'ry clog, / Mahometans eat up the hog."
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1782
"He [the slave] feels his body's bondage in his mind, / Puts off his generous nature, and, to suit / His manners with his fate, puts on the brute."
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1782
"The pride of letter'd ignorance, that binds / In chains of error our accomplish'd minds, / That decks with all the splendour of the true, / A false religion, is unknown to you."
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: w. 1791-2
"But, sent from God, his presence leaves, / To gather home his ripen'd sheaves, / To call encumber'd souls away / From fleshly bonds to boundless day, / (As when the winged hours excite, / And summon forth the morning-light) / And each to convoy to her place / Before the Eternal Father's face."
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)