Date: 1687

"This Heart of mine, now wreck'd upon despair, / Was once as free and careless as the Air; / In th' early Morning of my tender years, / E're I was sensible of Hopes and Fears, / It floated in a Sea of Mirth and Ease, / And thought the World was only made to please; / No adverse Wind had ever stop...

— Cutts, John, Baron Cutts of Gowran (1660/1-1707)

Date: 1691

"For wheresoe'r We look's an unknown Coast, / Our Mind perplex'd in endless Storms is tost; / And in th' Abyss all Wit and Learning lost."

— Heyrick, Thomas (bap. 1649. d. 1694)

Date: 1706

A woman's "Reason [may be] Shipwrack'd upon her Passion, and the Hulk of her Understanding lies thumping against the Rock of her Fury"

— Vanbrugh, Sir John (1664-1726)

Date: 1712, 1796

"Unsteady nature, varying like the wind, / Hurries to each extreme th'unstable mind; / At sea becalm'd, we wish some brisker gales / Would on us rise, and fill our limber sails: / We have our wish; and straight our skiff is toss'd / So high, we are in danger to be lost."

— Ellwood, Thomas (1639-1713)

Date: February 22, 1723

"For 'tis th' infirmity of noblest minds, / When ruffled with an unexpected woe, / To speak what settled prudence wou'd conceal: / As the vex'd ocean working in a storm, / Oft brings to light the wrecks which long lay calm, / In the dark bosom of the secret deep."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: Monday, May 25, 1724

"The Mind of Will. Weathercock is like the Sail of a great Ship, that has Room, to contain much Wind; but, having none, of its own producing, is swell'd out, by Turns, from all the Quarters of the Compass."

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1725

A poet shouldn't unfurl his sails in a gale of ungovernable rage

— Pitt, Christopher (1699-1748)

Date: 1727

"In this distracted Condition, Conscience, like a Storm at Sea, still breaks over him; first gathers about him in a thick black Cloud, threatning the Deaths that it comes loaded with; and after hovering about him for a-while, at last bursts with Lightnings and Thunder, and the poor shatter'd Vess...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1744

"Eternity's vast ocean lies before thee; / There, there, Lorenzo, thy Clarissa sails. / Give thy mind sea-room; keep it wide of earth, / That rock of souls immortal; cut thy cord; / Weigh anchor; spread thy sails; call every wind; / Eye thy great Pole-star; make the land of life."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1761

"My Soul is tost / Upon a sea of blood, whose stormy channel / My lab'ring bark must pass, e're it can reach / That land of Peace, to which its Hopes are bound."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)