Date: 1610
"Man is a lump, where all beasts kneaded be / Wisdom makes him an ark where all agree."
preview | full record— Donne, John (1572-1631)
Date: 1651
"Now, treacherous Boy, thou hast me sure, / Playing the Wanton with my Heart, / As foolish Children that a Bird have got, / Slacken the Thread, but not unty the knot."
preview | full record— Sherburne, Sir Edward (bap. 1616, d. 1702)
Date: 1661
"For when the outward body doth consume, / In Hell such take their Hell-prepared room, / Their souls there having some such shape, or hue / Of beasts, whose actions they inclined to"
preview | full record— Pordage, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. c. 1691)
Date: 1661
"But that, whose Sound, in the Pelîack Cave, / A Bridle to the Minds of Heroes gave, / And great Achilles Thoughts, the Centaure lov'd, / And when, upon the Strings, his Finger mov'd, / Hell's, or the Ocean's Fury 'twould allay."
preview | full record— Ross, Thomas (bap. 1620, d. 1675)
Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674
"Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move / Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird / Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid / Tunes her nocturnal note."
preview | full record— Milton, John (1608-1674)
Date: 1660, 1668
"Have you not seen an early-rising Lark / Spring from her Turf, making the Sun her mark, / Shooting her self aloft, yet higher, higher, / Till she had sung her self into Heaven's Quire? / Thus would he rise in Pray'r, and in a trice / His Soul become a Bird of Paradise."
preview | full record— Wild, Robert (1615/16-1679)
Date: 1674, 1686
"For Fancy's like a rough, but ready Horse, / Whose mouth is govern'd more by skill than force; / Wherein (my Friend) you do a Maistry own, / If not particular to you alone; /Yet such at least as to all eyes declares /Your Pegasus the best performs his Ayres."
preview | full record— Cotton, Charles (1630-1687)
Date: 1677
"Or else unto those Birds (aspiring) rare, / The Soul contemplative I may compare, / Of whom King David worthily attests, / That by the Holy Altar build their Nests: / So Meditation's said in holy Story, / To build her Nest about the Throne of Glory."
preview | full record— Speed, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. 1679?)
Date: 1681
"Here at the fountain's sliding foot, / Or at some fruit tree's mossy root, / Casting the body's vest aside, / My soul into the boughs does glide; / There like a bird it sits and sings, / Then whets, and combs its silver wings; / And, till prepar'd for longer flight, / Waves in its plumes the var...
preview | full record— Marvell, Andrew (1621-1678)
Date: 1683
"To Reason's yoke she quickly will incline, / Which, far from hurting, renders her divine; / But if neglected, will as easily stray, / And master Reason, which she should obey."
preview | full record— Dryden, John (1631-1700) [Poem ascribed to]