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 That paddles in a [purple]1 sea; My heart is gladder than all these Because my love is come to me. Raise me a dais of [silk and down]2; 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]3 fleur-de-lys; Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love, is come to me.
Eight Christina Rossetti Poems
Song Cycle by Samuel Liddle (1864? - 1951)
?. A birthday  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 - 1894), "A birthday"
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 Aldridge, Hall: "halcyon"
2 Parry: "purple and gold"
3 Aldridge: "tiny"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
?. Boy Johnny  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
"If you'll busk you as a bride And make ready, It's I will wed you with a ring, O fair lady." "Shall I busk me as a bride, I so bonny, For you to wed me with a ring, O boy Johnny?" "When you've busked you as a bride And made ready, Who else is there to marry you, O fair lady?" "I will find my lover out, I so bonny, And you shall bear my wedding-train, O boy Johnny."
Text Authorship:
- by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 - 1894), "Boy Johnny", appears in A Pageant and Other Poems, first published 1881
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]Total word count: 188