[Page 75]
ADDRESSED TO SLEEP.
1 Descend, sweet Sleep, mine eyelids close
2 With peace-restoring balm;
3 'Tis thou alone can'st heal my woes,
4 And lull me to a calm.
5 Come then on Fancy's airy wing
6 With all thy pleasing train,
7 Thy kind delusions with thee bring,
8 And lull my aching brain.
9 But why so oft must I in vain
10 Invoke thy sov'reign power?
11 Say, cruel, why dost thou disdain
12 On me thy bliss to shower?
[Page 76]13 Freely by Heav'n on all thou'rt shed,
14 The gift all nature shares,
15 Why then from me so distant fled?
16 Ah! why not hear my pray'r?
17 Why, like the selfish and the vain,
18 Thus deaf to sorrow's cry,
19 Court none but Pleasure's smiling train,
20 And shun the weeping eye?
21 Did wicked thoughts within my breast
22 A welcome harbour meet,
23 Did I, when lying down to rest,
24 Plot or contrive deceit,
25 Then could I not presume to find
26 Remission of my grief;
27 For whither can a guilty mind
28 Resort for its relief?
[Page 77]29 But soft! sure 'twas a voice that said —
30 "Stop! thy rebukes are vain;
31 Man by his Maker first was made
32 Exempt from grief or pain."
About this text
Author: Mary Alcock (née Cumberland)
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Source edition
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. 75-77. vii,[25],183,[1]p. (ESTC T86344) (Page images digitized by University of Michigan Library.)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Mary Alcock (née Cumberland)
- THE 55TH PSALM. ()
- THE 8TH, 9TH, AND 10TH VERSES OF THE 57TH PSALM. ()
- THE AIR BALLOON. ()
- AN AUNT'S LAMENTATION FOR THE ABSENCE OF HER NIECE. WRITTEN FROM HASTINGS. ()
- THE BODY-POLITIC. ()
- CHARADE. ()
- THE CHIMNEY-SWEEPER'S COMPLAINT. ()
- A COLLEGE LIFE. FOR THE VASE AT BATH-EASTON. ()
- THE CONFINED DEBTOR. A FRAGMENT FROM A PRISON. ()
- DITTO. ()
- DITTO. ()
- DITTO. ()
- EPIGRAM. ()
- FROM THE XIITH CHAPTER OF ST. MARK, 41ST VERSE, TO THE END. ()
- THE HIVE OF BEES: A FABLE, WRITTEN IN DECEMBER 1792. ()
- A HYMN. ()
- A HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- IN RETURN FOR THE PRESENT OF A PAIR OF BUCKLES. ()
- INSTRUCTIONS, SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN IN PARIS, FOR THE MOB IN ENGLAND. ()
- THE LXIIID PSALM. ()
- MODERN MANNERS. ()
- ON PLEASURE. ()
- ON RAILLERY. WRITTEN IN MAY 1781, FOR THE VASE AT BATH-EASTON. ()
- ON SENSIBILITY. ()
- ON THE DEATH OF DAVID GARRICK, Esq. ()
- ON THE HUMAN HEART. ()
- ON THE VIOLENT DEBATES IN THE HOUSE OF PEERS, UPON THE BILL FOR SUSPENDING THE HABEAS CORPUS, &c. ()
- ON WHAT THE WORLD WILL SAY. ()
- A PARODY UPON SWIFT's NURSES' SONG. ()
- A PARODY UPON WHO DARES TO KILL KILDARE. ()
- A PARTY AT QUADRILLE. ()
- THE POWER OF FANCY. WRITTEN FOR THE VASE AT BATH-EASTON. ()
- PSALM CXXXIX. ()
- A RECEIPT FOR WRITING A NOVEL. ()
- RIDDLE. ()
- THE ROSE TREE AND THE POPPY. A FABLE. ()
- A SONG. ()
- TO A CERTAIN AUTHOR, ON HIS WRITING A PROLOGUE, WHEREIN HE DESCRIBES A TRAVELLER FROZEN IN A SNOW STORM. ()
- UPON READING SOME VERSES UPON A SCULL. ()
- A VISION. ()
- WRITTEN AT HARROWGATE. ()
- WRITTEN AT SWANDLING BAR, IN THE COUNTY OF CAVAN, IN IRELAND. ()
- WRITTEN FROM BATH TO A FRIEND IN THE COUNTRY, IN THE YEAR 1783. ()
- WRITTEN IN IRELAND. ()
- WRITTEN ON EASTER DAY. ()
- WRITTEN ON NEW YEAR'S DAY. ()
- THE XXIIID PSALM. ()