Date: 1765

"To give a heart of triple steel / The Lord's humanity to feel"

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)

Date: 1767

"A heart of oak, and breast of brass / Were his, who first presum'd on seas to pass, / And ever ventur'd to engage, / In a slight skiff, with ocean's desperate rage."

— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771); Horace (65 B.C. -8 B.C.)

Date: 1770

"Sylvia, if you persist to steel your heart, / Expect a mansion in that dire abode."

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: 1770

"Mean while, the duties of a man revolve, / And steel thy bosom with the firm resolve"

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: 1776

"One breast alone against his rage was steel'd, / Secure in spotless Truth's celestial shield"

— Mickle, William Julius [formerly William Meikle] (1734-1788)

Date: 1776

"Forgive, O king, if as a man I feel, / I bear no bosom of obdurate steel"

— Mickle, William Julius [formerly William Meikle] (1734-1788)

Date: 1786

"With Iron Bosom, tho' the Beast he slew, / The Charms of melting Love Alcides knew!"

— Polwhele, Richard (1760-1838); Moschus

Date: 1787

"Thus had he spoke, while pride his bosom steels, / Nor granted Frenchmen wit--but in their heels."

— Inchbald, Elizabeth (1753-1821); Damaniant

Date: 1788

"When Passion's tides thro' mans' strong art'ries roar, / His heart resists them like a flinty shore; / But our frail frames, like mould'ring banks, give way."

— Williams, John [pseud. Anthony Pasquin] (1754-1818)

Date: 1791

"I have a mind more equal, not of steel / My heart is form'd, but much to pity inclined."

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)