Date: 1711
"When Fancy makes superior Flight her Aim, / Wing'd with this vig'rous, clear seraphick Flame, / She ranges Nature's universal Frame; / Bright Seeds of Thought from various Objects takes, / Whence her fair Scenes and Images she makes: / Spirits so swift, so fine, so bold, so strong, / Gave Milton...
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1712
"The Sun (when Summer-heats the Spring succeed) / Changes the tarnish'd Verdure of the Mead: / The dry'd up Rills no longer murmuring creep / O'er the smooth Pebbles, and invite to sleep, / But buzzing Insects make an uncouth Noise, / And sulph'rous Vapours thunder in the Skies. / So when the Hea...
preview | full record— Cobb, Samuel (1675-1713); Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718); Quillet, Claudius (fl.1640-1656)
Date: 1741-2
"When no malignant fever fires the brain, / And health luxuriant revels in each vein, / Tho' sunk in sloth, from all diseases free, / In dropsies, you will run to Reeve or Lee."
preview | full record— Gilbert, Thomas (bap. 1713, d. 1766)
Date: 1662, 1762
"My heart was hot within me; and while I was thus musing the fire kindled: and at the last I spake with my tongue."
preview | full record— The Church of England
Date: 1788, 1803
"Oh! may good angels, kindling in thy breast / The lamp of reason, guard thee from their snares!"
preview | full record— Downman, Hugh (1740-1809)
Date: January 19, 1791
"It is that new invented virtue, which your masters canonize, that led their moral hero constantly to exhaust the stores of his powerful rhetoric in the expression of universal benevolence; whilst his heart was incapable of harbouring one spark of common parental affection."
preview | full record— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)
Date: January 19, 1791
"You know them but at a distance, on the statements of those who always flatter the reigning power, and who, amidst their representations of the grievances, inflame your minds against those who are oppressed. These are amongst the effects of unremitted labour, when men exhaust their attention, bu...
preview | full record— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)
Date: 2009, trans. 2012
"But with the flame of alcohol burning in my brain I took no notice of the atmosphere that otherwise would have affected me, for although I wasn't outright happy, I was elated, exhilarated, motivated by the desire to continue this, which not even a direct reminder of Dad's death could shake, it w...
preview | full record— Knausgaard, Karl Ove (b. 1968)