Date: 1744
"Roused at the sound, the exulting soul ascends, / And breathes her native air; an air that feeds / Ambitions high, and fans ethereal fires; / Quick kindles all that is Divine within us, / Nor leaves one loitering thought beneath the stars."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1744
"The aspiring Soul, / Ardent and tremulous, like flame, ascends; / Zeal and Humility her wings to heaven."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1747
"In Vain I strive with Female Art, / To hide the Motions of my Heart; / My Eyes my secret Flame declare, / And Damon reads his Triumph there."
preview | full record— Lennox, née Ramsay, (Barbara) Charlotte (1730/1?-1804)
Date: 1758, 1781
"Alas! All Souls are subject to like Fate, / All sympathizing with the Body's State; / Let the fierce Fever burn thro' ev'ry Vein, / And drive the madding Fury to the Brain, / Nought can the Fervour of his Frenzy cool, / But Aristotle's self's a Parish Fool!"
preview | full record— Hawkins, William (1721-1801)
Date: 1773
"While others,--consecrate to higher aims, / Whose hallowed bosoms glow with purer flames, / Love in their heart, persuasion in their tongue,-- / With words of peace shall charm the listening throng, / Draw the dread veil that wraps the' eternal throne, / And launch our souls into the bright unkn...
preview | full record— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)
Date: 1777
"At present in my brain there floats / A thousand parti-colored motes; / From which, if time would but permit, / I might sift some sparks of wit."
preview | full record— Savage, Mary (fl. 1763-1777)
Date: June, 1793
"'Tis fancy, powerful fancy wings / The poet's flight whene'er he sings, / Fancy strikes the living lyre, / Fancy sheds poetic fire!"
preview | full record— Anonymous
Date: 1922
"I plucked my soul out of its secret place, / And held it to the mirror of my eye, / To see it like a star against the sky, / A twitching body quivering in space, / A spark of passion shining on my face."
preview | full record— McKay, Claude (1889-1948)
Date: w. 1936, 1938
"The year plunges into night / and the heart plunges / lower than night // to an empty, windswept place / without sun, stars or moon / but a peculiar light as of thought // that spins a dark fire-- / whirling upon itself until, / in the cold, it kindles // to make a man aware of nothing / that he...
preview | full record— Williams, William Carlos (1883-1963)
Date: December 12, 2016
"tell me, Bird, how soul inhabits the place of fire, / how soul dwells there in its trembling?"
preview | full record— De la O, Marsha