A Birthday by Christina Georgina Rossetti
The speaker compares their joyful heart to a singing bird, a fruit-laden apple tree, and a shell on a calm sea. They call for an elaborately decorated dais to celebrate their love’s arrival as the birthday of their life.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Love Poetry, Celebratory Poetry · 161 words
First lines
My heart is like a singing bird / Whose nest is in a watered shoot; / My heart is like an apple-tree / Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit; / My heart is like a rainbow shell / That paddles in a halcyon sea; / My heart is gladder than all these / Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a dais of silk and down; / Hang it with vair and purple dyes; / Carve it in doves and pomegranates, / And peacocks with a hundred eyes; / Work it in gold and silver grapes, / In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys; / Because the birthday of my life / Is come, my love is come to me.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Two stanzas express the speaker’s joy through repeated comparisons of the heart and a call for celebratory decorations.
- Love Poetry — The speaker attributes their happiness to their love’s arrival, repeating that arrival at the close of each stanza.
- Celebratory Poetry — The speaker requests a richly adorned dais to mark what they call the birthday of their life.
Tags
love · joy · celebration · lyric poetry
What this Textopian page supports
A Birthday is listed on Textopian as a poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Christina Georgina Rossetti
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Love Poetry, Celebratory Poetry
- Length: 161 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
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- Work identity for A Birthday by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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