A BIRTHDAY

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.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti A CHRISTMAS CAROL Watercolor and gouache on paper. 1857–1858 Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University

Данте Габриэль Россетти РОЖДЕСТВЕНСКИЙ ГИМН Бумага, акварель, гуашь. 1857–1858 Художественный музей Фогга при Гарвардском университете