"My Heart Is Like A Singing Bird"
Context: Christina Rossetti, the pale, beautiful sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and a follower of the artistic theories of the Pre-Raphaelite group of poets and painters, observed the natural surroundings about London and became closely acquainted with God's creations, which she often used symbolically for moral teachings. Her love of nature and her careful attention to detail are shown, for example, in "A Birthday." She sings with joy of the birthday or the beginning of her life, the day on which her love comes to her:
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 these
Because my love is come to me.
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