“A Birthday”
By: Christina Rossetti
An analysis.
Background
Born: 1830; London, England
Died: 1894
Occupation: writer, poet, short story, prose
writer
Father was in Italian exile
Other works include: Goblin Market and
Other Poems, The Prince’s Progress and
Other Poems
“A Birthday”
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 thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all of 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
Theme

“Love between people is a deeper emotion
than can be expressed even by natural
images of rapture and abundance.”


1st stanza: nature
2nd stanza: things made from nature that are
imperishable
Symbolism

“singing bird”

“Whose nest is in a watered shoot”

“fleur-de-lys” and “purple dyes”

“dais”

“rainbow shell” in the “halcyon sea”
Speaker/Tone


Someone who is in love with life
But it may also be a person



“my love is come to me”
Soothing, happy, reverie, imaginative
Conversational
Imagery

1st stanza all imagery was affiliated with
figures of speech

2nd stanza the imagery forms a complete
picture in the reader’s mind
Structure
Iambic tetrameter
Lyric poem
2 stanzas containing 8 lines each
Sound Patterns
 Rhyming

shoot, fruit
 Alliteration

boughs are bent
 Assonance

paddles, halcyon, gladder
 Consonance

thickset, fruit, bent
Personal Response



Imagery was used really well
Unique idea to compare her love and life to a
birthday
Has a nice rhythm and the words flow
together
Historical Context

“Women and Society”


Women writers were expected to limit the
subjects of their poems
“A Birthday” was acceptable because it was
about love
Figures of Speech

Similes in 1st stanza compare to things in
nature


Hyperboles


“My heart is like a singing bird”
“boughs are bent with thickset fruit”
Metaphors

“A Birthday”
Works Cited
“Christina Rossetti.” EXPLORING Poetry. Online Editor
2003. Reproduced in Student Resource Center.
Detroit: Gale, 2004.
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SRC
 "Criticism: 'A Birthday' by Christina Rossetti."
EXPLORING Poetry. Online Edition. Gale, 2003.
Reproduced in Student Resource Center. Detroit:
Gale, 2004.
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SRC
 LaBlanc, Michael. Poetry for Students. 10 ed.

Farmington Hills: Gale Group, 2001.