Date: w. c. 1800, 1805
"These sudden eruptions of the passions of the multitude, spread, like the lava of a volcano, throughout all France, nor could men of correct judgment, who aimed only at reform of abuses, and a renovation in all the departments, check the fury of the torrent."
preview | full record— Warren, Mercy Otis (1728-1814)
Date: 1854
"What was the meaning of that South-Sea Exploring Expedition, with all its parade and expense, but an indirect recognition of the fact, that there are continents and seas in the moral world to which every man is an isthmus or an inlet, yet unexplored by him, but that it is easier to sail many tho...
preview | full record— Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Date: 1869
"His mind resembled chiefly the rugged and outstanding mountain, and yet it had characteristics which reminded you likewise of the gentle stream, flowing sweetly through the valley below."
preview | full record— Sprague, William Buell (1795-1876)
Date: 1921
"I know what my heart is like / Since your love died: / It is like a hollow ledge / Holding a little pool / Left there by the tide, / A little tepid pool, / Drying inward from the edge."
preview | full record— Millay, Edna St. Vincent (1892-1950)
Date: 1951
"And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind."
preview | full record— Bradbury, Ray (1920-2012)
Date: 1983
"Hume's account of mental happenings is geographical in the broadest sense, a description of human economy and ecology, not just a record of topography and a positioning of land masses but a marking of the tidal movements and trade routes of the mind as it negotiates for ease and stability."
preview | full record— Richetti, John (b. 1938)
Date: September 19, 2014
"But concealment makes the soul a swamp. Confession is how you drain it."
preview | full record— Blow, Charles (b. 1970)
Date: 2014
"No, it's a strange beach; each body is a strange beach, and if you let in the excess emotion you will recall the Atlantic Ocean breaking on our heads."
preview | full record— Rankine, Claudia (b. 1963)
Date: 2015
"And yes, mortal knells / in sleepless hours, hollow knocks of empty / boats against a dock but still the mind / is a meadow, the heart an ocean even though / it burns."
preview | full record— Young, Dean (b. 1955)
Date: July 27, 2016
"But, gradually, I found myself caught up in the flow of the thing, gliding in my mind around every bend in the river, riding a raft with someone who knows where all the snags and sunken rocks of public life are."
preview | full record— Pierce, Charles P. (b. 1953)