Fra Folehaven. Et stengærde ved et skovbryn
✦ Read about this
Thorvald Niss painted "Fra Folehaven. Et stengærde ved et skovbryn" in 1883, an oil on canvas depicting a stone wall at the edge of a wood. The work is held by SMK — the National Gallery of Denmark.
Niss was a Danish landscape painter. He later became associated with the Skagen Painters, and through that connection developed an interest in marine subjects.
Background drawn from SMK — National Gallery of Denmark & Wikipedia
Today's poem
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.
Christina Rossetti · Public domain
✦ Read about this
Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) was an English writer of romantic and devotional poems, best known for "Goblin Market" and "Remember." "A Birthday" belongs to her romantic vein rather than the devotional strain that also runs through her work.
The poem is built in two eight-line stanzas of contrasting movement. The first accumulates a series of similes for the speaker's joy — a singing bird, an apple tree heavy with fruit, a rainbow shell on a calm sea — each declaring the heart gladder still because "my love is come to me." The second turns to command, calling for an elaborate throne of silk, down, gold, and carved doves, pomegranates, and peacocks.
The title's "birthday" is figurative: love's arrival marks a new beginning, "the birthday of my life." The refrain-like closing line anchors both stanzas, giving the poem its incantatory, celebratory force.
Background drawn from PoetryDB & Wikipedia