Date: 1686, 1712

"When first my Soul put on its fleshly Load, / It was Imprison'd in the dark Abode; / My Feet were Fetters, my Hands Manacles, / My Sinews Chains, and all Confinement else; / My Bones the Bars of my loath'd Prison grate; / My Tongue the Turn-key, and my Mouth the Gate."

— Arwaker, Edmund (c.1655-1730)

Date: 1686, 1712

"O! that some usual Labour were injoyn'd, / And not the Tyrant Vice enslav'd my mind! / No weight of Chains cou'd grieve my captive Hands, / Like the loath'd Drudg'ry of its base Commands."

— Arwaker, Edmund (c.1655-1730)

Date: 1697

"Her charms unbind / The chains of love, or fix them on the mind."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1731

"I've try'd all Arts my Passion to controul, / And still the giddy Tumult of my Soul; / But all in vain, no Charm has Strength to bind, / In lasting Chains, my wild disorder'd Mind."

— Thompson, Isaac (1703-1776)

Date: 1731

"Or here on Earth in diff'rent Bodies plac'd, / Still Acts new Scenes, forgetful of the past: / Till from her dull material Chain set free, / (The mortal Curtain drawn) she smiles to see, / The various Prospects of Immensity."

— Boyse, Samuel (1708-1749)

Date: 1731

"Here Arlington, thy mighty Mind disdains / Inferior Earth, and breaks its servile Chains, / Aloft on Contemplations Wings you rise, / Scorn all below and mingle with the Skies."

— Boyse, Samuel (1708-1749)

Date: 1733-5

"[Love's] Pleasures have so many Pains, / And leave such Stings behind, / That I'm resolv'd to quit the Chains, / And free my captive Mind."

— Bowden, Samuel (fl. 1733-1761)

Date: 1737

"Brave Souls when loos'd from this ignoble Chain / Of Clay, and sent to their own Heav'n again, / From Earth's gross Orb on Virtue's Pinions rise / In Æther wanton, and enjoy the Skies."

— Baker, Henry (1698-1774)

Date: 1741

"He knew, that vain was ev'ry Art, design'd / To check the Freedom of the humane Will; / That Restraints could shackle up the Mind, / Which, self-determin'd, kept her Empire still."

— Ogle, George (1704-1746)

Date: 1741

"His weary Soul, from earthly Bondage freed, / Nor fled to Heav'n, where Some say Spirits fly; / Nor vanish'd into Air, as Others plead; / Nor chang'd into a Star adorn'd the Sky; / Nor sought direct (a solitary Shade!) / In Pluto's gloomy Realm, Eternal Rest: / But thro' Traduction, (as his Moth...

— Ogle, George (1704-1746)