Date: 1700

"They cannot, no; each sigh Love's flight sustains, / O'er my own Heart in my own Breast he Reigns, / And holds too strong, my strugling Soul in Chains."

— Hopkins, John (b. 1675)

Date: w. 1702-1713

"Loos'd from ye chains of flesh his freer mind / Rose up to sacred love, / To perfect saint or seraphim refin'd, / Quitting his lump of clay, / As subtle spirits fume away / Loos'd from their earth they upward mount, they flye, / They light, they shine, & blaze along the skye."

— Parnell, Thomas (1679-1718)

Date: w. before 1717? (first published 1989)

"But he who servily can wish or grieve / For that which is not in his powr to give / Casts off the firmness wch shoud make him great / the strongest shield we can oppose to fate / letts inclinations grow & thus he weaves / Those very bonds which keep us passions slaves."

— Parnell, Thomas (1679-1718)

Date: 1731

"Or here on Earth in diff'rent Bodies plac'd, / Still Acts new Scenes, forgetful of the past: / Till from her dull material Chain set free, / (The mortal Curtain drawn) she smiles to see, / The various Prospects of Immensity."

— Boyse, Samuel (1708-1749)

Date: 1731

"Here Arlington, thy mighty Mind disdains / Inferior Earth, and breaks its servile Chains, / Aloft on Contemplations Wings you rise, / Scorn all below and mingle with the Skies."

— Boyse, Samuel (1708-1749)

Date: 1738

"Happy, he who can unbind / The Chains that clog the fetter'd Mind!"

— Boyse, Samuel (1708-1749)

Date: 1766

"Fancy leads the fetter'd senses / Captives to her fond controul; / Merit may have rich pretences, / But 'tis Fancy fires the soul."

— Cunningham, John (1729-1773)

Date: 1766

"Far beyond the bonds of meaning / Fancy flies, a Fairy queen!"

— Cunningham, John (1729-1773)

Date: 1775

"Such was the Wreath, when HYMEN led / Our MONARCH to his nuptial bed; / And such the tender Chain which binds, / In mutual Love, their wedded Minds."

— Nugent, Robert [or Craggs] (1702-1788)