1. “A Birthday” By: Christina Rossetti

2. Background Born: 1830; London, England Died: 1894
Occupation: writer, poet, short story, prose writer
Father was in Italian exile
Other works include: Goblin Market and Other Poems, The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems

3. “A Birthday” 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 That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all of 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

4. Theme
“Love between people is a deeper emotion than can be expressed even by natural images of rapture and abundance.”
1st stanza: nature
2nd stanza: things made from nature that are imperishable

5. Symbolism “singing bird” “Whose nest is in a watered shoot”
“fleur-de-lys” and “purple dyes”
“dais”
“rainbow shell” in the “halcyon sea”

6. Speaker/Tone Someone who is in love with life
But it may also be a person
“my love is come to me”
Soothing, happy, reverie, imaginative
Conversational

7. Imagery 1st stanza all imagery was affiliated with figures of speech
2nd stanza the imagery forms a complete picture in the reader’s mind

8. Structure Iambic tetrameter Lyric poem
2 stanzas containing 8 lines each

9. Sound Patterns Rhyming Alliteration Assonance Consonance shoot, fruit
boughs are bent
Assonance
paddles, halcyon, gladder
Consonance
thickset, fruit, bent

10. Personal Response Imagery was used really well
Unique idea to compare her love and life to a birthday
Has a nice rhythm and the words flow together

11. Historical Context “Women and Society”
Women writers were expected to limit the subjects of their poems
“A Birthday” was acceptable because it was about love

12. Figures of Speech Similes in 1st stanza compare to things in nature
“My heart is like a singing bird”
Hyperboles
“boughs are bent with thickset fruit”
Metaphors
“A Birthday”

13. Works Cited
“Christina Rossetti.” EXPLORING Poetry. Online Editor Reproduced in Student Resource Center. Detroit: Gale,
"Criticism: 'A Birthday' by Christina Rossetti." EXPLORING Poetry. Online Edition. Gale, Reproduced in Student Resource Center. Detroit: Gale,
LaBlanc, Michael. Poetry for Students. 10 ed. Farmington Hills: Gale Group, 2001.