A Birthday

Listen to:

A Birthday (:55)

by Christina Rossetti 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

In celebration of the wedding of my dear friends, Casey Rich and Jillian Smith

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 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. 

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.