Date: w. prior to April 1770; 1785, 1837, 1875

"Did not thy iron conscience blush to write / This Tophet of the gentle arts polite?"

— Chatterton, Thomas (1752-1770)

Date: 1770

"Not greater wonder seiz'd th' abode / Of gloomy Dis, infernal god, / With pity when th' Orphean lyre / Did every iron heart inspire, / Sooth'd tortur'd ghosts with heavenly strains, / And respited eternal pains."

— Dalton, John (b. 1709, d. 1763)

Date: 1771

"What steel'd the heart of Brutus, sternly good, / To save fall'n Rome, redeem'd by Cæsar's blood?"

— Colvill, Robert (d. 1788)

Date: 1771

"Immortal Truth his bosom steels, / And guards him glorious to the goal"

— Cunningham, John (1729-1773)

Date: 1755, 1771

"But he whose active, unencumber'd mind / Leaves this low earth and all its mists behind, / Fond in a pure unclouded sky to glow, / Like the bright orb that rises on the Po, / O'er half the globe with steady splendour shines, / And ripens virtues as it ripens mines."

— Cawthorn, James (1719-1761)

Date: November 1772

"Must Chloe hope in vain to steel that heart / In which each nymph would gladly share a part?"

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: 1772

"But pr'ythee, with that heart of steel, / Revile the dead, and maul them soundly."

— Stevenson, John Hall (1717-1785)

Date: November 25, 1773

"You've seen me round the bickers reel / Wi' heart as hale as temper'd steel,"

— Fergusson, Robert (1750-1774)

Date: 1773

"'Prepare (he said) the tragic scene to close, / 'And shun the fate that iron-hearts impose"

— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)

Date: 1773

"Her form was beauty's self, thro' which refin'd / Shone, like a jewel chrystal-clos'd, her mind"

— Robertson, James (fl.1768-1788)