{
 "id": "john-henry-newman/my-birthday",
 "title": "My Birthday",
 "ordinal": "II",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Henry Newman",
 "poet_slug": "john-henry-newman",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Verses on Various Occasions",
 "book_slug": "verses-on-various-occasions",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 2,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "Verses on Various Occasions (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/a600744000newmuoft"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-henry-newman_verses-on-various-occasions",
  "file": "verses-on-various-occasions.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "http://www.newmanreader.org/works/verses",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009038168",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48927",
   "https://archive.org/details/dreamofgerontius01newmuoft"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 63,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "longest_line_chars": 62,
  "max_indent": 1
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 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "2.",
   "title": null,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Let the sun summon all his beams to hold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bright pageant in his court, the cloud-paved sky",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Earth trim her fields and leaf her copses cold;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the dull month with summer-splendours vie.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It is my Birthday;⁠—and I fain would try,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Albeit in rude, in heartfelt strains to praise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My God, for He hath shielded wondrously",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From harm and envious error all my ways,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And purged my misty sight, and fixed on heaven my gaze.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Not in that mood, in which the insensate crowd",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of wealthy folly hail their natal day⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With riot throng, and feast, and greetings loud,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chasing all thoughts of God and heaven away.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Poor insect! feebly daring, madly gay,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What! joy because the fulness of the year",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Marks thee for greedy death a riper prey?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is not the silence of the grave too near?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Viewest thou the end with glee, meet scene for harrowing fear?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Go then, infatuate! where the festive hall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The curious board, the oblivious wine invite;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Speed with obsequious haste at Pleasure’s call,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with thy revels scare the far-spent night.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Joy thee, that clearer dawn upon thy sight",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The gates of death;⁠—and pride thee in thy sum",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of guilty years, and thy increasing white",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of locks; in age untimely frolicksome,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Make much of thy brief span, few years are yet to come!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet wiser such, than he whom blank despair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fostered grief’s ungainful toil enslave;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lodged in whose furrowed brow thrives fretful care,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sour graft of blighted hope; who, when the wave",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of evil rushes, yields⁠—yet claims to rave",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At his own deed, as the stern will of heaven.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In sooth against his Maker idly brave,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whom e’en the creature-world has tossed and driven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cursing the life he mars, “a boon so kindly given.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He dreams of mischief; and that brainborn ill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man’s open face bears in his jealous view.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fain would he fly his doom; that doom is still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His own black thoughts, and they must aye pursue.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Too proud for merriment, or the pure dew",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Soft glistening on the sympathising cheek;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As some dark, lonely, evil-natured yew,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose poisonous fruit⁠—so fabling poets speak⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the moon’s pale gleam the midnight hag doth seek.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No! give to me, Great Lord, the constant soul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor fooled by pleasure nor enslaved by care;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Each rebel-passion (for Thou canst) controul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And make me know the tempter’s every snare.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What, though alone my sober hours I wear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No friend in view, and sadness o’er my mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Throws her dark veil?⁠—Thou but accord this prayer,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I will bless Thee for my birth, and find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That stillness breathes sweet tones, and solitude is kind.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Each coming year, O grant it to refine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All purer motions of this anxious breast;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Kindle the steadfast flame of love divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And comfort me with holier thoughts possest;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till this worn body slowly sink to rest,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This feeble spirit to the sky aspire⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As some long-prisoned dove toward her nest⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "There to receive the gracious full-toned lyre,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bowed low before the Throne ’mid the bright seraph choir.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}