Analysis of A Birthday

Christina Georgina 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 thickset 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.


Scheme XABAXBCB XDCDXCXB
Poetic Form
Metre 11110101 11100101 11111101 1111111 1111011 110001001 1111111 01111111 11011101 11110101 110101 0110101 11010101 01010111 0101111 11111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 536
Words 109
Sentences 3
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 211
Words per stanza (avg) 54
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

33 sec read
196

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote various romantic, devotional, and children's poems. "Goblin Market" and "Remember" remain famous. She wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in the UK: "In the Bleak Midwinter", later set by Gustav Holst and by Harold Darke, and "Love Came Down at Christmas", set by Harold Darke and by other composers. more…

All Christina Georgina Rossetti poems | Christina Georgina Rossetti Books

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