Sonnet, Written On My Birth Day

Again has Time his annual circle run, And April ushers in my natal day: Since first my infant eyes beheld the sun, How many a year has swiftly roll'd away! Full half my thread of life the Fates have spun; What various colours does the web display! Some dark, some brighter; ere the work be done The sadder hues will overshade the gay. Yet not to Melancholy will I yield; Against Despondency and Discontent Still Fortitude and Hope shall keep the field; Swerving from thee, O Virtue! I repent; Now! to repel Temptation I am steel'd; To follow thee I'm resolutely bent.