A Birthday

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.


Christina Rossetti