| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | A Birthday | | By Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894) |
| | | 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. | |
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| 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. | | | | |
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