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Date: 1700

"Rack'd with my griefs, my Anxious Soul survives, / Dash'd like a ship which with the Billows drives."

— Hopkins, John (b. 1675)

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Date: 1700

The "Trading Mind" must voyage over an Ocean, but "Resisting Rocks oppose th' Inquiring Soul, / And adverse Waves retard it as they Rowl."

— Pomfret, John (1667-1702)

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Date: 1700

"Love Fights--Love Conquers still-- / And my own Heart is his Triumphant Car."

— Hopkins, John (b. 1675)

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Date: 1709

Some will tell us "What all our Senseless Dreams import, / Drest in a Thousand various Shapes, / Centaures, Chimæras, Bulls and Apes, / When Fancy is dispos'd her Airyship to Sport."

— Gould, Robert (b. 1660?, d. in or before 1709)

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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)

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Date: 1715

"The Poet is in the right to say, that the Mind is a Part of Man: for it is, indeed, the informing, but not an assisting Part, as a Mariner in a Ship, and a Coachman in his Box, as the Academicks believ'd."

— Lucretius Carus, Titus (94 B.C.- ca. 49 B.C.); Creech, Thomas (1659-1700)

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Date: 1715-1720

"'Tis however remarkable that his Fancy, which is every where vigorous, is not discover'd immediately at the beginning of his Poem in its fullest Splendor: It grows in the Progress both upon himself and others, and becomes on Fire like a Chariot-Wheel, by its own Rapidity."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1718

"For from most Bodies, Dick, You know,/ Some little Bits ask Leave to flow; / And, as thro' these Canals They roll, / Bring up a Sample of the Whole. / Like Footmen running before Coaches, / To tell the Inn, what Lord approaches."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

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Date: 1725-6

"Thus anchor'd safe on reason's peaceful coast, / Tempests of wrath his soul no longer tost; / Restless his body rolls, to rage resign'd: / As one who long with pale-ey'd famine pin'd, / The sav'ry cates on glowing embers cast / Incessant turns, impatient for repast"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744), Broome, W. and Fenton, E.

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Date: 1725

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

— Pitt, Christopher (1699-1748)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.