Date: 1384

"O Thought, that wroot al that I mette, / And in the tresorie hit shette / Of my brayn!"

— Chaucer, Geoffrey (c. 1340-1400)

Date: 1714 [1712, 1717]

"They shift the moving Toyshop of their Heart; / Where Wigs with Wigs, with Sword-knots Sword-knots strive, / Beaus banish Beaus, and Coaches Coaches drive"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1714 [1712, 1717]

"Just in that instant, anxious Ariel sought / The close Recesses of the Virgin's thought."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1717, 1736

"Most souls, 'tis true, but peep out once an age, / Dull sullen pris'ners in the body's cage."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1717, 1736

"Dim lights of life that burn a length of years, / Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1717, 1736

"Like Eastern Kings a lazy state they keep, / And close confin'd in their own palace sleep."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1728, 1729, 1736

"She form'd this image of well-bodied air, / With pert flat eyes she window'd well its head, / A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead, / And empty words she gave, and sounding strain, / But senseless, lifeless! idol void and vain!"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1773

"A thought, enbosom'd in this heart's recess / Shou'd, rising into act--Ah spare the rest!"

— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)