Date: 1773

"While others,--consecrate to higher aims, / Whose hallowed bosoms glow with purer flames, / Love in their heart, persuasion in their tongue,-- / With words of peace shall charm the listening throng, / Draw the dread veil that wraps the' eternal throne, / And launch our souls into the bright unkn...

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: 1783

" And when thou yields to night thy wide domain, / Let rays of truth enlight his sleeping brain."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1784

"I hurry forward, passion's helplesss slave! And scorning reason's mild and sober light, / Pursue the path that leads me to the grave!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1786

"So o'er my soul short rays of reason fly, / Then fade:--and leave me, to despair and die!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1786

"But when thy envied sanction crowns my lays, / A ray of pleasure lights my languid mind, / For well I know the value of thy praise."

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1788

"'Tis ever Nature's gen'rous view; / Great minds should noble ends pursue; / As the clear sun-beam, when most bright, / Warms, in proportion to its light."

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)

Date: 1788

"Ye! who can selfish cares forego, / To pity those which others know; / As Light, that from its centre strays, / To glad all Nature with its rays; / Oh! ease the pangs ye stoop to share, / And rescue millions from despair!"

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)

Date: 1791, 1806

"I'll snatch a ray of hope, / For Hope's the lamp divine / That lights and vivifies the fainting soul, / With ecstacies beyond the pow'rs of song!"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1793, 1806

"'Twas Instinct rushing thro' her beating breast! / Instinct, the lamp divine that lights the soul"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1793, 1806

"The noblest passions, and the living pow'rs / Of intellectual light, the soul's pure lamp, / All, all extinguish'd! "

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)