StoryTitle("caps", "On My Birthday, July 21") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I, my dear, was born to-day— ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So all my jolly comrades say: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They bring me music, wreaths, and mirth, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And ask to celebrate my birth: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Little, alas! my comrades know ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That I was born to pain and woe; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To thy denial, to thy scorn, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Better I had ne'er been born: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I wish to die, even whilst I say— ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"I, my dear, was born to-day.\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I, my dear, was born to-day: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall I salute the rising ray, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Well-spring of all my joy and woe? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Clotilda, thou alone dost know. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall the wreath surround my hair? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Or shall the music please my ear? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall I my comrades' mirth receive, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And bless my birth, and wish to live? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then let me see great Venus chase ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Imperious anger from thy face; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then let me hear thee smiling say— ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Thou, my dear, wert born to-day.\"", "") ?>
Poet("Matthew Prior", "1664–1721") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>