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.

R. Byrchmore sets stanza 1

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Aldridge, Hall: "halcyon"
² Parry: "purple and gold"
³ Aldridge: "tiny"

Text Authorship:

• by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 - 1894), "A birthday" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Robert Aldridge (b. 1954), "A birthday", confirmed with a concert program [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Gordon Ware Binkerd (1916 - 2003), "A birthday", published 1971 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Newel Kay Brown (b. 1932), "A birthday", 1969, first performed 1969 [ alto, flute, and horn ], from A Set of Three [sung text not yet checked]
• by Harry Thacker Burleigh (1866 - 1949), "A birthday song", published << 1940 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ruth Byrchmore , "A birthday", stanza 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "My heart is like a singing bird", published 1952 [ SSA chorus and piano ], from Four Christina Rossetti Settings [sung text not yet checked]
• by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912), "A birthday", 1909 [ voice and piano or orchestra ], from Two Songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jean Coulthard (1908 - 2000), "A birthday" [ voice and piano ], from Christina Songs, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Frederic Hymen Cowen, Sir (1852 - 1935), "A birthday", <<1935 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by George Selwyn English (b. 1912), "A birthday", 1934 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Richard Bruce Faith (b. 1926), "My heart is like a singing bird" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Arthur R. Frackenpohl (b. 1924), "My love is come to me", published 1961 [ ssa chorus, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "A birthday", op. 131 no. 2 (1952), published 1953 [ soprano or tenor and piano ], from Three Lyrics by Christina Rossetti, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Miriam Gideon (1906 - 1996), "My heart is like a singing bird", 1983 [ medium voice and piano (or flute, oboe, vibraphone, violin, and violoncello) ], from Wing'd Hour, no. 3, New York, Peters [sung text not yet checked]
• by (Francis) Edward Gladstone (1845 - 1928), "A birthday", published 1872? [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Alan Gray (1855 - 1935), "My heart is like a singing bird", published 1911 [ voice and piano ], from Three Songs, Book 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Juliana Hall (b. 1958), "A birthday" [ soprano and piano ], from Christina's World -- 5 Songs for Soprano and Piano on Poems by Christina Rossetti, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Cyril Bertram Lander , "A birthday" [ voice and piano ], from Flores de mi primavera [sung text not yet checked]
• by Samuel Liddle (1864? - 1951), "A birthday", published 1900 [ voice and piano ], from Eight Christina Rossetti Poems [sung text not yet checked]
• by Walter J. Lockitt , "A birthday", published [1899] [ voice and piano ], London : Weekes & Co. [sung text not yet checked]
• by Federico Longás (1893 - 1968), "My heart is like a singing bird", published 1927 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Isidore Luckstone (1861 - 1941), "A birthday", published 1920 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Alexander Campbell MacKenzie, Sir (1847 - 1935), "A birthday", published 1878 [ voice and piano ], from Three Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by (James) Albert Mallinson (1870 - 1946), "A birthday", published 1901 [ voice and piano ], also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text not yet checked]
• by Willy B. Manson , "A birthday", published 1919 [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Love and Youth [sung text not yet checked]
• by Theophilus Julius Henry Marzials (1850 - 1920), "My love is come", published 1881 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974), "A Birthday", op. 37 no. 2 (1916) [ voice and piano ], from Trois Poèmes, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "My heart is like a singing bird", 1909, published 1918 [ voice and piano ], from English Lyrics, Tenth Set, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Paul Amadeus Pisk (1893 - 1990), "A birthday", 1939 [ medium voice and piano ], from 6 Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022), "A birthday", from Women's Voices, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Cyril Meir Scott (1879 - 1970), "A birthday", published 1913 [ voice and piano ], London : Elkin [sung text not yet checked]
• by Myron Silberstein (b. 1975), "A Birthday", 2016, from No Life But This, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Henry (Richard Charles) Somerset, Lord (1849 - 1932), "A birthday", published 1895 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Gilbert Spross (1874 - 1961), "My heart is like a singing bird" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Joel Weiss , "A birthday", 2004 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Arthur Battelle Whiting (1861 - 1936), "A birthday", published 1904 [ soprano and piano ], from Three Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson (1931 - 2003), "A birthday", published 1967 [ voice and piano ], from Six English Lyrics [sung text not yet checked]
• by Raymond Huntington Woodman (1861 - 1943), "A birthday", published 1909 [ voice or unison chorus and piano or orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Karl Young , "My heart is like a singing bird", published 1937 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Albert Mallinson.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 108