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Date: 1755, 1771

"The' etherial soul that Heaven itself inspires / With all its virtues, and with all its fires, / Led by these sirens to some wild extreme, / Sets in a vapour when it ought to beam; / Like a Dutch sun that in the' autumnal sky / Looks through a fog, and rises but to die."

— Cawthorn, James (1719-1761)

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Date: 1771, 1816

"Thus man [like a cataract], the harpy of his own content, / With blust'ring passions, phrensically bent, / Wild in the rapid vortex whirls the soul, / Till reason bursts, impatient of controul."

— Maude, Thomas (1718-1798)

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Date: 1771, 1816

"But now the wavy conflict tends to peace, / And jarring elements their tumults cease, / Placid below, the stream obsequious flows, / And silent wonders how fell Discord grows./ So the calm mind reviews her tortur'd state, / Resuming reason for the cool debate."

— Maude, Thomas (1718-1798)

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Date: 1773

The mind may be "poured forth"

— Penny [née Hughes, formerly Christian], Anne (bap. 1729, d. 1780/4)

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Date: 1773

An awful stillness may be breathed through the soul that, "As by a charm" causes "the waves of grief to subside" and stops the "headlong Tide" of "Impetuous Passion"

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

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Date: 1773

"Winter austere forbids me to aspire, / And northern tempests damp the rising fire; / They chill the tides of Fancy's flowing sea, / Cease then, my song, cease the unequal lay."

— Wheatley, Phillis (c.1753–1784)

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Date: 1773

"Yet of etherial temper are their souls, / And in their veins the tide of honour rolls; / And valour kindles there the hero's flame, / Contempt of death, and thirst of martial flame. / And pity melts the sympathizing breast, / Ah! fatal virtue!—for the brave distrest."

— Day, Thomas (1748-1789)

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Date: 1773

"But if thou com'st with frown austere / To nurse the brood of care and fear; / To bid our sweetest passions die, / And leave us in their room a sigh; / Or if thine aspect stern have power / To wither each poor transient flower, / That cheers the pilgrimage of woe, / And dry the springs whence ho...

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

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Date: 1774

"We live, alas! where the bright god of day, / Full from the zenith whirls his torrid ray: / Beneath the rage of his consuming fires, / All fancy melts, all eloquence expires."

— Williams, Francis (c.1697-1762)

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Date: 1775

Lonely anguish may melt the heart

— Gray, Thomas (1716-1771)

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