A BIRTHDAY

by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894)

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 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.