Joanna Baillie - Sonnet 7 lyrics

I'VE seen my day before its noon decline, And dark is still the future, nor, alas! Can Hope, with all the magic of her gla**, Irradiate the deep gloom which fate malign Has gather'd round;--yet will I not repine; For tho' the courage, that can do and dare, Be brightest glory, unsubdued to bear, That calmer, better virtue may be mine;-- For this is of the mind;--to slay, be slain, Asks but a moment's energies, and Fame First wakens and then keeps alive the flame; But Patience must itself, itself sustain, And must itself reward, nor hope to find The praise or the compa**ion of mankind.