Date: w. 1739, 1762

"Come Melancholy! silent Pow'r, / Companion of my lonely Hour, / To sober thought confin'd: / Thou sweetly-sad ideal Guest, / In all thy soothing Charms confest, / Indulge my pensive Mind."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: w. 1739, 1762

"Ye pale Inhabitants of Night, / Before my intellectual Sight / In solemn Pomp ascend."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: w. 1739, 1762

"Ye faithless Idols of our Sense, / Here own how vain your fond Pretence, / Ye empty Names of Joy!"

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: w. 1739, 1762

Melancholy's "transient Forms like Shadows pass, / Frail Offspring of the magic Glass, / Before the mental Eye."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: w. 1739, 1762

"Thro' Reason's clearer Optics view'd, / How stript of all it's Pomp, how rude / Appears the painted Cheat."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1762

"Yet, if too soon this transient Pleasure fly, / A Charm more lasting shall the Loss supply: / While Harmony, with each attractive Grace, / Plays in the fair Proportions of her Face; / Where each soft Air, engaging and serene, / Beats Measure to the well-tun'd Mind within."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1762

"Ne’er did thy Voice assume a Master’s Pow’r, / Nor force Assent to what thy Precepts taught; / But bid my independent Spirit soar, / In all the Freedom of unfett’red Thought"

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1762

"Whence Order, Elegance, and Beauty move / Each finer sense, that tunes the Mind to Love; / Whence all that Harmony and Fire that join, / To form a Temper, and a Soul like thine."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1762

"Thus thro' each diff'rent Track my Thoughts pursue, / Thy lov'd Idea ever meets my View."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)

Date: 1762

"Reflect, before the fatal Ax / My threatned Doom has wrought: / Nor sacrifice to sensual Taste / The nobler Growth of Thought."

— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)