Date: 1775

"See, in their course, each transitory thought / Fixed by his touch a lasting essence take; / Each dream, in fancy's airy colouring wrought, / To local symmetry and life awake!"

— Gray, Thomas (1716-1771)

Date: 1780, 1781, 1788

"Two passions there by soft contention please, / The love of martial Fame, and learned Ease: / These friendly colours, exquisitely join'd, / Form the enchanting picture of thy mind."

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1781, 1810

"Triumphant love, with still superior art, / Engraves their wonders on the Painter's heart."

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)

Date: 1786

"Her pencil sickening Fancy throws away, / And weary Hope reclines upon the tomb."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1789

"Thee Queen of Shadows! [Fancy]--shall I still invoke, / Still love the scenes thy sportive pencil drew, / When on mine eyes the early radiance broke / Which shew'd the beauteous, rather than the true!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1789

"Ah! hide for ever from my sight / The faithless flatterer Hope--whose pencil, gay, / Portrays some vision of delight, / Then bids the fairy tablet fade away; / While in dire contrast, to mine eyes / Thy phantoms, yet more hideous, rise, / And Memory draws, from Pleasure's wither'd flower, / Corr...

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1792

"They bade retentive memory on their mind / Impress each image, in distinctive lines / That mock'd erasure."

— Polwhele, Richard (1760-1838)

Date: 1792

The Roman senators "ne'er essay'd to steal into the heart, / By painting to the feelings"

— Polwhele, Richard (1760-1838)

Date: 1792

The Roman senators did "Not shew the mental portraiture itself, / By gradual art, thro' fancy's calmer light. / Pure passion dwells not on description's hues"

— Polwhele, Richard (1760-1838)

Date: 1792

"Beyond the woody Tamar, fancy trac'd; / And, as she spread the glowing tint, it seem'd / No fairy picture: for young hope reliev'd / With golden rays each figure fancy drew"

— Polwhele, Richard (1760-1838)