Date: 1746
"Now, while I taste the Sweetness of the Shade, / While Nature lies around deep-lull'd in Noon, / Now come, bold Fancy, spread a daring Flight, / And view the Wonders of the torrid Zone."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1759
"Fair Pupil, shake off Soul-depressing Vice, / That wing'd with Faith, your Soul may upward rise / Fly from alluring Snares of guileful Joy, / Let Reason's pure Delights your Mind employ."
preview | full record— Marriott, Thomas (d. 1766)
Date: 1760
"O happy stroke, that bursts the bonds of clay, / Darts through the rending gloom the blaze of day, / And wings the soul with boundless flight to soar, / Where dangers threat, and fears alarm no more."
preview | full record— Beattie, James (1735-1803)
Date: 1761, 1790
"Ev'n from this dark confinement with delight / She [the mind] looks abroad, and prunes herself for flight; / Like an unwilling inmate longs to roam / From this dull earth, and seek her native home."
preview | full record— Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787); Browne, Isaac Hawkins (1706-1760)
Date: 1761, 1765
"But, after Fancy's eagle-flights were o'er, / And heav'n-illumin'd Genius could no more; / Thus, conscious all his best essays how vain, / Might the rapt bard conclude his humble strain."
preview | full record— Stevenson, William (1730-1783)
Date: 1763-4
A sudden slumber gently seal'd my eyes, / And wrapt my wearied limbs in soft repose; / Excursive Fancy wing'd her agile flight / Thro' the aerial mansions of the world; / Instant appear'd, portray'd upon my mind, / The fair Urania, clad in candid robe; / And bright around
preview | full record— Mr. P--y (fl. 1763)
Date: 1765
"As when the greedy fowler's snare / The birds by providence elude, / Our souls are rescu'd from despair, / And their free flight renew'd."
preview | full record— Smart, Christopher (1722-1771)
Date: 1771, 1776
"Thus Heaven enlarged his soul in riper years. / For Nature gave him strength, and fire, to soar, / On Fancy's wing, above this vale of tears."
preview | full record— Beattie, James (1735-1803)
Date: 1771, 1776
"Fancy now no more / Wantons on fickle pinion through the skies; / But, fix'd in aim, and conscious of her power, / Sublime from cause to cause exults to rise, / Creation's blended stores arranging as she flies."
preview | full record— Beattie, James (1735-1803)
Date: 1773
"Seiz'd in thought / On fancy's wild and roving wing I sail, / From the green borders of the peopled earth, / And the pale moon, her duteous fair attendant; / From solitary Mars; from the vast orb / Of Jupiter, whose huge gigantic bulk / Dances in ether like the lightest leaf; / To the dim verge,...
preview | full record— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)