Date: 1713

"And yet methinks a Beam of Light breaks in / On my departing Soul."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: 1715

"Thy Virtues flash, / They break at once on my astonish'd Soul; / As if the Curtains of the Dark were drawn, / To let in Day at Midnight."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: February 22, 1723

"If my Flaminius ever wou'd reward / My constant ardor, with an equal flame; / Engag'd by such endearing decencies, / As make the lamp of love in Herod's breast / To burn so bright, and never to consume."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1724

"I not upbraid your love, but your wild passions, / Which wou'd, like envious shades, eclipse those beauties, / That else, with justice, sure, must charm mankind!"

— Savage, Richard (1697/8-1743)

Date: 1724

"When all at once / A thousand anxious Thoughts that slept by Day, / Swarm'd in my Brain, 'till it resembled Hell, / Hot, dark and hot: my sick Imagination, / Assisted by the Shades of Night, would give / A gloomy turn to each Idea there."

— Jeffreys, George (1678-1755)

Date: 1724

"I cannot speak the rest--the Thought is Hell-- / How my Brain glows! now Reason keep thy Seat."

— Jeffreys, George (1678-1755)

Date: 1730

"What dreadful havoc in the human breast / The passions make, when unconfin'd, and mad, / They burst, unguided by the mental eye, / The light of reason; which in various ways / Points them to good, or turns them back from ill."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1739

"For, O Gustavus, / My Soul is dark, disconsolate and dark; / Sick to the World, and hateful to myself, / I have no Country now."

— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)

Date: 1745

"The Duties of his Day / Were all discharg'd, and gratefully enjoy'd / It's noblest Blessings; calm, as Evening Skies, / Was his pure Mind, and lighted up with Hopes / That open Heaven; when, for his last long Sleep / Timely prepar'd, a Lassitude of Life, / A pleasing Weariness of mortal Joy, / F...

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1755

"Thou, superior to the Frowns / Of Fate, can'st pour thy Sunshine o'er the Soul, / And brighten Woe to Rapture!"

— Brown, John (1715-1766)