Date: 1704

"When gentle Reason rules thy Breast; / The Sun upon the calmest Sea / Appears not half so bright as Thee."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1705, 1709

"Has She a Bodkin and a Card? / She'll prick her Mind."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1705, 1709

"Let all her Ways be unconfin'd: / And clap your Padlock--on her Mind"

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1706

"Oh! where shall I begin? what language find / To heal the raging anguish of your mind?"

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1709

"Thus in the Picture of our Mind / The Action may be well design'd; / Guided by Law, and bound by Duty; / Yet want this Je ne sçay quoy of Beauty."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1709 [1708]

"Beautiful Looks are rul'd by fickle Minds; / And Summer Seas are turn'd by sudden Winds"

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1709 [1708]

"With Wishes rais'd, with Jealousies opprest / (Alternate Tyrants of the Human Breast) / By one great Tryal He resolves to prove / The Faith of Woman, and the Force of Love."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: w. 1718 [first published 1907]

"All this says Richard is but Nonsense / For whats the Will without the Conscience / That mighty Pow'r by whom the thought / Is from Kings Bench to Chanc'ry brought. / What Seat for Her have You assign'd / When She may view and sway the mind?"

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1718

"And yet, slap dash, is All again / In every Sinew, Nerve, and Vein. / [the mind] Runs here and there, like Hamlet's Ghost; / While every where She rules the roast."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1718

Were it not for the Optic Nerves, the eyes might conspire the ruin of the mind: "That They shou'd see and She be blind."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)