Christina Rossetti's "A Birthday" celebrates the passionate joy of love. The "birthday" of the title is a figurative one: now that the speaker's "love" has arrived, they feel like their life has officially begun. They compare their happy heart to a singing bird, a tree heavy with fruit, and a colorful shell bobbing along on a tranquil sea. Next, they command that an ornately decorated "dais" (a kind of raised platform for a throne) be made to honor the arrival of their love. Rossetti was deeply religious, and while this love at first sounds romantic in nature, the speaker might also be talking about God; in this reading, Christ is the king for whom that "dais" is being built. "A Birthday" was first published in Macmillan's Magazine in 1861.
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The Full Text of “A Birthday”
1My heart is like a singing bird
2Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
3My heart is like an apple-tree
4Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
5My heart is like a rainbow shell
6That paddles in a halcyon sea;
7My heart is gladder than all these
8Because my love is come to me.
9Raise me a dais of silk and down;
10Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
11Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
12And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
13Work it in gold and silver grapes,
14In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
15Because the birthday of my life
16Is come, my love is come to me.
The Full Text of “A Birthday”
1My heart is like a singing bird
2Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
3My heart is like an apple-tree
4Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
5My heart is like a rainbow shell
6That paddles in a halcyon sea;
7My heart is gladder than all these
8Because my love is come to me.
9Raise me a dais of silk and down;
10Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
11Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
12And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
13Work it in gold and silver grapes,
14In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
15Because the birthday of my life
16Is come, my love is come to me.
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“A Birthday” Summary
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“A Birthday” Themes
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The Joy of Love
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Faith and Spiritual Fulfillment
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “A Birthday”
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Lines 1-4
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit; -
Lines 5-8
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. -
Lines 9-14
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; -
Lines 15-16
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
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“A Birthday” Symbols
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Christian Imagery
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Nature
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“A Birthday” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Euphony
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Imagery
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Parallelism
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Simile
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“A Birthday” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Water'd shoot
- Boughs
- Thickset
- Halcyon
- Dais
- Down
- Vair
- Fleurs-de-lys
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- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “A Birthday”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“A Birthday” Speaker
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“A Birthday” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “A Birthday”
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More “A Birthday” Resources
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External Resources
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Rossetti's Portraits — See images of Rossetti throughout her life.
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of "A Birthday" by James Earl Jones.
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A Brief Biography — Learn more about Christina Rossetti through the Poetry Foundation.
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Goblin Market and Other Poems — Take a look at an early edition of the collection in which "A Birthday" first appeared.
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In Our Time: Christina Rossetti — A 45-minute podcast episode in which literary scholars discuss Rossetti's life and work for BBC Radio 4.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Christina Rossetti
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