Date: 1664
"But that benefit which I consider most in it [rhyme], because I have not seldom found it, is, that it bounds and circumscribes the fancy: for imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and lawless, that, like an high-ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it outrun the judgment."
preview | full record— Dryden, John (1631-1700)
Date: 1697
"Amazing Power of Guilt! one great Offence / Benumbs the Mind, and stupifys the Sense, / Binds fast reluctant Conscience with its Charms, / And of its Sting the Worm within disarms."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: Friday, June 20, 1712
"Upon her Tongue did such smooth Mischief dwell, / And from her Lips such welcome Flatt'ry fell, / Th' unguarded Youth, in Silken Fetters ty'd, / Resign'd his Reason, and with Ease complied. / Thus does the Ox to his own Slaughter go, / And thus is senseless of th' impending Blow. / Thus flies th...
preview | full record— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)
Date: 1712
"She [the soul] does her Godlike Liberty secure: / Her Right and high Prerogative maintains, / Impatient of the Yoke, and scorns coercive Chains."
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
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."
preview | full record— Boyse, Samuel (1708-1749)
Date: 1734
"Hail, holy souls, no more confin'd / To limbs and bones that clog the mind; / Ye have escap'd the snares, and left the chains behind."
preview | full record— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
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."
preview | full record— Baker, Henry (1698-1774)
Date: 1742
"Our freedom chain'd; quite wingless our desire; / In sense dark-prison'd all that ought to soar / Prone to the centre; crawling in the dust; / Dismounted every great and glorious aim; / Embruted every faculty divine; / Heart-buried in the rubbish of the world."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1751
"Thus a lively Imagination and unperceived Self-Love, fetter the Heart in certain ideal Bonds of their own creating: Till at length some turbulent and furious Passion arising in its Strength, breaks these fantastic Shackles which Fancy had imposed, and leaps to its Prey like a Tyger chained by Co...
preview | full record— Brown, John (1715-1766)
Date: 1752, 1791
"Know too, the joys of sense controul, / And clog the motions of the soul; / Forbid her pinions to aspire, / Damp and impair her native fire: / And sure as Sense (that tyrant!) reigns, / She holds the empress, Soul, in chains."
preview | full record— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)