I hear a voice you cannot hear,

Which says I must not stay;

I see a hand you cannot see,

Which beckons me away.

Thomas Tickell (1686-1740): Colin and Lucy.

I hate the day, because it lendeth light

To see all things, but not my love to see.

Edmund Spenser (1553-1599): Daphnaida, v. 407.

And for to see, and eek for to be seie.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1328-1400): Canterbury Tales. The Wif of Bathes Prologue. Line 6134.

But to see her was to love her,

Love but her, and love forever.

Robert Burns (1759-1796): Ae Fond Kiss.

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.

I don't see it.

Colley Cibber (1671-1757): The Careless Husband. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Now let us sing, Long live the king!

And Gilpin, Long live he!

And when he next doth ride abroad,

May I be there to see!

William Cowper (1731-1800): History of John Gilpin.

Oh wad some power the giftie gie us

To see oursel's as others see us!

It wad frae monie a blunder free us,

And foolish notion.

Robert Burns (1759-1796): To a Louse.

I see the right, and I approve it too,

Condemn the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue.

Samuel Garth (1670-1719): Ovid, Metamorphoses, vii. 20 (translated by Tate and Stonestreet, edited by Garth).

Brutus.  Then I shall see thee again?

Ghost.  Ay, at Philippi.

Brutus.  Why, I will see thee at Philippi, then.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act iv. Sc. 3.

Brutus.  Then I shall see thee again?

Ghost.  Ay, at Philippi.

Brutus.  Why, I will see thee at Philippi, then.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act iv. Sc. 3.

I give thee sixpence! I will see thee damned first.

George Canning (1770-1827): The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-Grinder.

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.

'T is but a part we see, and not a whole.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 60.

O, woe is me,

To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.

But optics sharp it needs, I ween,

To see what is not to be seen.

John Trumbull (1750-1831): McFingal. Canto i. Line 67.

Coffee, which makes the politician wise,

And see through all things with his half-shut eyes.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Rape of the Lock. Canto iii. Line 117.