Analysis of A Birthday

Christina Rossetti 1830 (London) – 1894 (London)



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 daïs 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.


Scheme XABAXBCB XDCDXCXB
Poetic Form
Metre 11110101 11100101 11111101 11111111 1111011 110001001 1111111 01111111 110111101 11110101 110101 0110101 11010101 01010111 0101111 11111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 586
Words 107
Sentences 2
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 210
Words per stanza (avg) 54
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Submitted by naama on July 15, 2020

Modified on March 15, 2023

32 sec read
43

Christina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English poet who wrote various romantic, devotional, and children's poems. more…

All Christina Rossetti poems | Christina Rossetti Books

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