A VISION. Mary Alcock (née Cumberland) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T86344 Alcock [née Cumberland], Mary, 1741?–1798. Poems, &c. &c. by the Late Mrs. Mary Alcock [poems only]. London Printed for C. Dilly, Poultry 1799 pp. []-4. vii,[25],183,[1]p.

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A VISION . Methought a boundless plain entranc'd I view'd , Beyond what waking eye could ever scan , With thousand and ten thousand flocks bestrew'd , Emblems , I soon descried , of fallen man . Thro' tangled wilds and crooked ways with speed Numbers I saw on numbers heedless run , Yet oft they stopt to crop each pois'nous weed , That shew'd it's gaudy colours to the sun . With grief I mark'd their fleeces torn and rent , As thro' the brambles eagerly they rush'd , Some , on their own and other's ruin bent , Turn'd round enrag'd , and at each other push'd . The young their folds and fertile vales forsook , And vent'rous climb'd the wild and craggy rock , But soon the wolf the straggling lamb o'ertook , Who rashly dar'd to leave the parent flock . A general bleating now assail'd mine ear In tones expressive of the deepest woe ; " Alas ! " I cried , " are there no shepherds near , " No guides the strait , the even way to show ? " When turning to the East my enquiring eye , ( With double strength it's visual pow'r renew'd ) The plain , the beaten path I did espy Tho' verdant vales with guides and folds bestrew'd . " Ah , wretched sheep , " lamenting then I cried , " Why leave ye thus your folds and fost'ring guides ? Undone ye are , and , lost by your own pride , Ye shun those helps which bounteous Heav'n provides . " But oh ! how can my feeble verse pourtray The glorious vision , which I then survey'd , When all resplendent as the blaze of day , The Shepherd came in majesty array'd ? Such heav'nly light refulgent beam'd around , Swift o'er the wide expanse I saw it spread , Such words benignant in mine ears did sound , As cheer'd the living and reviv'd the dead . Methought all nature seem'd to bloom anew , The barren desert blossom'd as the rose , The parched wilderness appear'd to view As pastures green , where living water flows . There at his soothing call , and safe from harm , With tenderest care his flocks the Shepherd fed , The feeble lambs he gather'd with his arm , And gently those that were with young he led . Obedient to the heavenly Shepherd's call , Gasping with thirst I hasted to the stream , There in his presence on my knees I fall , Then wake , and start from my enraptur'd dream .