A Birthday by Christina Rossetti.

In A Birt hday by Christina Rossetti, vivid descriptions of happiness fill the verse. Some such descriptions are 'a singing bird,' 'an apple-tree' filled with fruit, and 'a rainbow shell in a halcyon sea.' On this birthday, love is first experienced. Ms. Rossetti uses lots of description from nature to convey her feelings toward a birthday.
She expresses happiness as fullness and as a well-watered tree that sustains life by harbouring a nest in its branches and a tree ready for harvest. A raised platform made of down and silk speaks of warmth and comfort. She wants it lined with fur and purple as in royalty. Doves, pomegranates and peacocks add to this royal theme. She feels special and royal on her birthday because she has found love. The verbs "hang," "carve," "work," are commands that an official might daily use.
A singing bird - To a ‘singing bird’, vocal expression is as natural as breathing. By speaking of her ‘heart’ in these terms, the speaker indicates that her song forms a natural part of herself and is an overflow of her identity. The image of the singing bird is one which is often used in Romantic poetry. William Wordsworth emphasised the importance of expressing natural feelings when he argued that it was his intention to create a poetry which was a ‘spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings’. (See Literary context > Romantic poetry).
A watered shoot - By having a ‘nest’ in a ‘watered shoot’ (line 2), the speaker suggests that the sustenance upon which she can live and rest has been provided: * The word shoot alludes to the first stages of growth of a plant as it emerges from the ground. By describing a shoot as ‘well watered’, the poem conveys ideas of lushness and fertility. However, rather than making a nest in a full grown tree, by making it in a shoot, the singing bird remains in a place of fragility, since it is easy to uproot or destroy a shoot * The idea of being watered has biblical connotations. In the Old Testament book of Isaiah, the believers in Jerusalem are encouraged byGod’s promise that he will guide them and provide for their needs:

Rainbow … halcyon - By speaking of her heart as a ‘rainbow shell / That paddles in a halcyon sea’ (lines 5-6), the speaker provides an image of exuberant colour drifting at ease in tranquil waters. * According to the Bible, the image of the rainbow refers to the fulfilment of God’s promises, when God helped Noah to escape the flood which wiped out the known world. He then set a rainbow in the sky as a promise that never again would such an event occur (Genesis 19:3) * It is possible that the speaker perceives that God’s promises are being fulfilled in her life and wants to celebrate this * The term ‘halcyon’ comes from the Greek myth of a bird (possibly a kingfisher) which was said to breed about the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea. According to ancient writers, it charmed the wind and waves so that the sea was especially calm during the period. * For English readers, the phrase ‘halcyon days’ was associated with ideas of joy, prosperity and tranquillity * The poem’s speaker uses the image of the halcyon sea to indicate the deep comfort and rest she has found.
By ending the first verse with the declaration that her ‘heart is gladder than all these’ (line 7), the speaker indicates that descriptions of the natural world are incapable of fully expressing her exuberant emotional state.

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Repetition
There is a marked amount of repetition in A Birthday * Each alternate line in the first verse begins ‘My heart is like’ (lines 1, 3, 5, 7). This emphasises the speaker’s struggle to find the language to describe her emotions and serves as a link between her own subjectivity and the external nature she observes * The poem ends, ‘Is come, my love is come to me’ (line 16). By drawing attention to the word ‘come’, the speaker expresses her joy at the return of her lover and highlights the arrival of the fulfilment of the time of waiting that she has undergone.
Metre
The first verse of A Birthday is written in strict iambic tetrameter. This creates a song-like rhythm and means that a stress consistently falls on the word ‘heart’.
In the second verse, 4 out of the 7 lines begin with a trochee. Here, the stress falls on the verbs ‘Rise’, ‘Hang’, ‘Carve’ and ‘Work’ (lines 9, 10, 11, 13). By breaking out of the regular metrical scheme of the first verse, these trochees highlight the urgency of the speaker to create something new to celebrate the return of her love.