Discussion Topic

Interpretation and use of imagery in Christina Rossetti's poem "A Birthday"

Summary:

Christina Rossetti's poem "A Birthday" uses rich imagery to convey the speaker's profound joy and anticipation. Descriptions of nature, such as "my heart is like a singing bird" and "my heart is like an apple-tree," evoke a sense of renewal and celebration, reflecting the speaker's emotional state. The imagery creates a vivid, almost tangible sense of happiness and fulfillment.

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How would you interpret Christina Rossetti's poem "A Birthday"?

"A Birthday," for Christina Rossetti's narrator, is not a traditional birthday, but rather the day that marks her experience of first love. The effusiveness of this feeling is addressed in the first line, "My heart is like a singing bird." A bird sings to communicate. The simile expresses the sense in which the narrator is in communion with her love. 

The first stanza uses anaphora, or repetition of the first words of each line. "My heart" is repeated and compared to aspects of nature using similes. The speaker's heart is not only a singing bird, but also "an apple-tree" and "a rainbow shell." The comparisons are connected to images of fertility and abundance:

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

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My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;

"A watered shoot" signifies nourishment, while the "apple-tree / Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit" appears to be the result of that nourishment—ripeness and lush fecundity. On the other hand, "a rainbow shell" is, unlike an apple tree, something rare and elusive. It is varicolored, which complements the complex and shifting nature of love. Here, it "paddles in a halcyon sea." Its active movement indicates that it is alive, while "halcyon" indicates that light and warmth glow all around it.

The first stanza is replete with resplendent imagery. There is a springing iambic rhythm, and every second line is in perfect rhyme.

The second stanza draws us out of the natural world and into the human social world of festive celebration. Rossetti maintains the rhyme scheme, yet now each line begins with a verb in the imperative tense.

Elements of the natural world now become artifice, luxurious adornments for the dais, which symbolize her sense of being elevated or honored. She is celebrating "the birthday of [her] life," marked by the coming of her love. In other words, life does not begin until one first knows love in all its lush beauty.

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How does Christina Rossetti use imagery in her poem "A Birthday"?

The main image in the poem is the comparison between the speaker's heart and various positive things. For example, in line one the speaker's heart is "a singing bird" and in line 2 it is "an apple tree" (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174258), but her heart is also described as better than all of those things. In the old, she describes the "dais of silk and down" that she wants built, which is a metaphor for the arrival of her love.
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“Birthday” by Christina Rossetti portrays a beautiful love affair. The speaker can hardly contain her joy. The point of view is first person with the speaker sharing her feelings about her love and lover.

The poem was published in a magazine in 1861.  This was the Victorian Age in England.  Sex was not discussed publically and barely privately. Considered avant garde because of the subject matter, the poem actually became popular despite the time period. 

The tone of the poem is jubilant and happy. The poet employs comparisons, which provide the images describing her feelings about the love she feels for the person who has come into her life. 

1st stanza

The first verse provides several similes used to convey the depth of her feelings.

Similes/comparisons

  • Her heart to a song bird whose nest is found near the waterSinging to the bird is as natural as the heart beating.  To the speaker, her love feels the same.  It is as easy as breathing. 
  • Her heart to an apple tree filled with its fruit to the point of the limb nearly breaking.  The love she receives sustains her.
  • Her heart is like the rainbow seashell that is found in the calm sea.
  • She feels serene and tranquil when she is near her lover.

Her love surpasses all of these beautiful aspects of nature because of her lover coming into her life.

2nd stanza

Raise me a daïs of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes…
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me. 

In the second verse, the speaker asks for a platform to be made of soft materials…essentially she describes a bed…

  • On the bed hang the ornamental squirrel fur dyed in purple.
  • Carve the wood supports with doves and pomegranates and peacocks with the beautiful tail feathers with the eyes.
  • Work into the wood grapes and their leaves in gold and silver
  • Also use the French heraldic emblem called the fleurs-de-lys which comes from the lily

Make this beautiful [marriage] bed for her lover and her since this day is the beginning of the speaker’s life.  It is her symbolic birthday because her love has come to her.   

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