Date: c. 10-8 BC

"an, haec animos aerugo et cura peculi / cum semel imbuerit, speremus carmina fingi / posse linenda cedro et levi servanda cupresso?"

— Quintus Horatius Flaccus [Horace] (65 BC - 8 BC)

Date: 1594

"For men haue marble, women waxen mindes / And therefore are they form'd as marble will, / The weake opprest, th'impression of strange kindes / Is form'd in them by force, by fraud, or skill."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1594

"For much imaginary work was there; / Conceit deceitful, so compact, so kind, / That for Achilles' image stood his spear / Griped in an armed hand; himself behind / Was left unseen, save to the eye of mind: / A hand, a foot, a face, a leg, a head, / Stood for the whole to be imagined"

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1633

"Our two soules therefore, which are one, / Though I must goe, endure not yet / A breach, but an expansion, / Like gold to ayery thinnesse beate."

— Donne, John (1572-1631)

Date: 1647

"False Coin with which th'Impostor cheats us still; / The Stamp and Colour good, but Metal ill!"

— Cowley, Abraham (1618-1667)

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: 1657

"Meanwhile, beseech'd her drink that most renownd / Choyce Cordiall sent, th' Worlds onely Soveraign; / 'Twould mint new Spirits, steel both Heart and Brain / For th' crown'd Exploit at hand"

— Harington, John (1627-1700)

Date: 1657

"O be thou pleas'd to purge away my dross: / Calcine my soul; obliterate my sins; / And make me pure against that day begins."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1657

"Alas! alas! my flesh is too too weak, / And may be conquer'd; thou maist eas'ly break / This brittle Casket: but my inward minde / A jewel is which thou shalt never finde."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)