Date: 1791

"In the rich realms of polished taste, / Where judgment penetrates to find / The treasures of the unwrought mind, / Where conversation's ardent spirit / Refines from dross the ore of merit, / Where emulation aids the flame / And stamps the sterling bust of fame."

— West, Jane (1758-1852)

Date: 1796

In Roman ampitheaters monarchs sat and watched "How beasts of prey could tear the human heart, / Rich with some lov'd impression.-"

— Yearsley, Ann (bap. 1753, d. 1806)

Date: 1796

"My sons, if rich, might wield / The fan emblaz'd with Psyche and her boy / O'er some enchantress, whose contagious sighs / Would blast the best impression of their souls."

— Yearsley, Ann (bap. 1753, d. 1806)

Date: w. October, 1796; 1810

"Conscious the mortal stamp is on thy breast."

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)

Date: 1797

"The base controul / Of petty despots in their pedant reign / Already hast thou felt;--and high disdain / Of Tyrants is imprinted on thy soul."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1803

"WHEN the awaken'd soul receives / The first impression fancy gives / Temper'd by soft affection's reign, / Sweet are the days of pleasing pain."

— Hunter [née Home], Anne (1742-1821)

Date: 1803

The muse "beams a visionary day: / Bright as the magic torch she early gave / To light thy ven'trous way, through fancy's secret cave."

— Hunter [née Home], Anne (1742-1821)

Date: 1810

"Environ'd as she is by every ill, / To her heart's first impression faithful still,"

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)

Date: 1810

"Therefore, actual pictures of beloved friends would not be so eagerly coveted, but that we render this darling, internal image indistinct, by recalling it too frequently; as that strength of line, which gives sharpness and spirit to a copper-plate, becomes injured after a certain number of impre...

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)

Date: 1810

An internal image is like a copper plate: "By repeated use, the plate, if not retouched, will produce only a dim and shadowy mass, in which the features and countenance cannot be very distinctly discerned."

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)