PoetrySelected 27 Sep 2026
A Birthday
A poem by Christina Rossetti.
English · English
Christina RossettiBefore 1894
English translation prepared automatically for the Brief. Original sources and creator credits remain the reference.
My heart is like a singing birdWhose nest is in a water'd shoot;My heart is like an apple-treeWhose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;My heart is like a rainbow shellThat paddles in a halcyon sea;My heart is gladder than all theseBecause 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 lifeIs come, my love is come to me.
The work and its creator
Explore the original at PoetryDB ↗
Creator: Christina Rossetti
Nationality / cultural background: English
Work / edition: Before 1894
Historical public-domain poem. Verse and line breaks retained.
In the source: A Birthday
Selected for the Brief on 27 Sep 2026. This date records our selection, rather than when the work was created.
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