Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Christina Georgina Rossetti. 18301894780. 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 | 5 |
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; | 10 |
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 | 15 |
Is come, my love is come to me. |