A Birthday Christina Rossetti 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                             5   That paddles in 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;                      10 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                            15   Is come, my love is come to me. Questions 1.) How does the use of metaphors in the beginning have       an effect on the poem? 2.) What is the meaning of the word "birthday" in line 15?

Analysis The speaker is a person who is deeply in love with someone or something that has recently returned.  The speaker compares their heart�s emotions to various objects throughout the poem.  In line 1, the comparison to a singing bird is used.  The meaning behind lines 1-2 implies that the speaker considers that a bird, who lives in a nest that is in a young tree with an available water supply, would feel compelled to sing with joy.  In lines 3-4, the heart is compared to an apple tree whose branches sag with ripened fruit.  This imagery leads the reader to picture a heart overflowing with love, similar to the tree with overbearing fruit.  Lines 5-6 lead the reader to visualize a brilliantly colored shell in the midst of a placid sea.  The heart is the shell that has tried to be pacified by the water but relentlessly refuses to dull its shine.  Yet lines 7-8 states that all of the loveliness above cannot be compared to the pleasurable things the speaker is feeling. The audience is not directed towards a specific person.  Instead, the lover is declaring their love to the world through this poem, describing their emotions and feeling towards their love. The second stanza is even more detailed with images, giving the poem the element of imagery.  The speaker calls to bring a raised platform of extravagant material such as silk, down feathers, purple dyes, and doves.  The speaker gives a detailed description of what this platform is to be.  This platform is a marriage platform where the speaker wants to exchange vows with their love.  The word �birthday� in line 15 is a connotation because it not only implies the beginning of the speaker�s life, but also the beginning of the speaker�s life with their loved one as a married couple.  The birthday is the wedding day.

poem taken from Wider Than the Sky edited by Scott Elledge (1990).