Critically appreciate Christina Rossetti’s A Birthday

Critically appreciate Christina Rossetti’s A Birthday

The sixteen- line poem, A Birthday by Christina Rossessti, has been divided into two eight-line stanzas, each stanza of the poem having an irregular rhyme pattern. As we read through the first line of the first stanza of this poem, we find that the narrator is expressing her feelings on the occasion of her life’s birthday, and begins each comparison in the first stanza with “My is heart is like”. The poem is also seen as an expression of joy at the poet’s reunion with Christ. There are, however, problems with  a purely religious interpretation. However, when Rossetti opens the second stanza with ‘Raise me’, she means that she wants herself to be raised in his (Christ) honour.

Let me tell you here that Rossetti never tried to hide the religious meaning of her poetry. Moreover, the use of biblical imagery does not necessarily make a poem a devotional one. The use of images in  the first stanza are not only figures ‘recalled in their natural element’, but each represent a moment of fulfilment in a sense both sensual and sexual. Let’s take for example; the ‘singing bird’ has found a mate and expresses his joy  in song – as the poet wishes to  express hers. The apple tree represents another time of fulfilment in nature, as is the shell which simply suggests the highest expression of fulfilment which nature has to offer in its hint of the birth of Aphrodite. All these images in the poem are very effective.

Just as Rossetti uses anaphora, which becomes evident with the repetition of “My is heart is like” in every line of the first stanza, it shows the narrator is not able to express her joy through language. That is; the joy of the narrator is inexpressible, and cannot be defined in words. Her feelings abound, and make her unable to articulate what she wants to. She keeps on searching for a suitable simile for her feelings, as a result makes use of the natural symbols that bring about images of happiness and celebration.

When she says: “My heart is like an apple-tree, Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;” she compares her heart to the apple-tree, which is laden or bent because of thickset fruit, and gives a promise of the nourishment of fruit. On the other hand, the use of the image of rainbow in the fifth line of the first stanza is a symbol of God’s promise to Noah and mankind that he won’t flood the earth again................................................................................................................................

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Milan Tomic

Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.

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