"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."
First of all, I think it's fair to say that there are loads of similies in this poem. In the first stanza alone, every other sentence uses the words 'like a', comparing her heart to a bird, a tree and a shell. I also think that the speaker of the poem is a female. I can't say it is the poet, but it seems like it is about a woman who has finally found someone to make her happy. I get the feeling that it is not an outside factor that has brought all of this joy to her, but some inner peace. She never makes any mention of a man (or woman), so it's difficult to place the cause of her happiness on one thing.
Please bear with me now because I'm going to deviate a little bit and talk about symbols. To be fair, I'm really really bad at analyzing poetry. I'm also just going to ignore the first stanza because I can't find any symbols in this. The first thing to catch my attention was when she talked about fleurs-de-lys. That could be one of two things: the fleurs-de-lys is the symbol of French royalty as well as a flower itself. The flower represents female virtue and spirituality. I think with the way the poem is structured and the diction (words used) works, it's fair to say that she means the flower itself. At least, that would work for the first verse since it deals a lot with nature. The second verse does seem to deal more with rich and material things. All in all, I think the poem is really Rosetti talking about how she doesn't need anyone else to make her happy but herself. I also think it is about her loving herself. But, as I said earlier, I'm really bad at analyzing poetry on my own.
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I agree. Not that you are bad at doing poetry analysis, but rather that Rossetti might be trying to take the role of poet AND speaker in this poem.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I think it is how "My" is used so frequently in the first stanza, talking about the emotions. Things are described really vividly, as if based on her own experiences to begin with.
Nice post.
I thought your analysis of this poem was actually pretty good, and reading your interpretation actually opened the poem up a bit.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that stood out in this poem for me was all the great use of imagery.
She never makes any mention of a man (or woman), so it's difficult to place the cause of her happiness on one thing.
ReplyDeleteI am going to propose something that may be making her happy. The literal and most obvious interpretation i believe is to assume it is a lover. What if, however, it were a child? This may seem far fetched but the Birthday part confuses me unless i take it as maybe the birthday of a child? Excellent post, however.
At first, while reading your analysis of the poem, I was going to ask whether the speaker was necessarily a woman. The symbolism of the fleur-de-lis was a good catch- I didn't know that it also referred to a flower representing female virtue.
ReplyDeleteYou say that you don't recognize any symbols in the first stanza; I think you are on the right track by commenting on the elements of nature there. There seem to be a lot of references to summer, to things ripening and to the bounty of nature. Birds in a nest, trees full of fruit, a shellfish in the sea in summer (that is, the halcyon days). I think that this is tied to the idea that her life is fulfilled now.
Its about Jesus Dude look up her history.
ReplyDeleteher love was Jesus/God because she had found her new religion and starting her life again with it.
ReplyDeleteShe is re-born=birthday.
I got quite a lot of points from this page. I have this poem for my forthcoming exams and I am bad at analyzing poetry.
ReplyDeleteor another interpretation might be that she is giving birth and thats why the poem is called 'a birthday' however, this might be the reason she is happy
ReplyDeletein the second stanza she uses phrases like 'raise me a dais' this puts on an effect of empowerment. the dais referred here can be a throne of royalty, altar(religious) or maybe she is in pain and wanting to die to begin her after death re birth!
She is not giving birth!!! She is a single woman.
ReplyDeleteThis poem talks about the rebirth of the poet within her new religion.
all yall comments are good .don't u think the rainbow in the first stanza talks about her emotions? the colours represents the different mode in her life or the way she lived her life, going though pain as a girl, droped out of school, her daddy's illness, her own illness and their family's finacial problems.
ReplyDelete“A Birthday” gives us an impression of a joyful, exuberant poem. At first the reader gets the impression of a party with celebrations and presents but as we read the poem we get to know it is more about a religion related celebration. The poet Christina Rossetti was devoted to God her entire life. From this we can infer that the Birthday is not literally the day she was born but the day she wants to be devoted, love God that is her spiritual rebirth.
ReplyDeleteits not complete. not upto the point
ReplyDelete