The speaker is bursting with happiness because her beloved has finally arrived. She compares her heart to things that are full to the brim with life or beauty: a bird singing in a lush, watered branch; an apple tree so heavy with fruit its boughs bend; a rainbow-colored shell floating in a calm sea. Each image is richer than the last, building a sense of pure delight. Then she says her heart is even happier than all these examples, because love is here. The second half of the poem shifts to a demand for a magnificent celebration. She wants a throne-like platform draped in royal colors, decorated with carvings of doves, pomegranates, peacocks, and intricate golden vines. This is not just a birthday—it’s the start of a new life now that her love has come. The mood is one of ecstatic, childlike wonder and almost overwhelming sweetness.
A Birthday — Summary
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.