Lesson Patterns,

3 Deviation,
Style and Meaning

Instructions: Below is the first 4 lines of 'A Birthday' by the nineteenth century pre-
Raphaelite poet, Christina Rossetti. You should work out what makes the lines parallel and
what the meaning and effects associated with it are.

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 thick-set 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.

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 thick-set fruit;

In the first two lines and the second two lines, respectively, two grammatically parallel main
clauses repeat 'My heart is,' and are finished by a comparison structure beginning with 'like.' In
this comparative construction, the head of the noun phrase refers to a natural object ('bird,' 'apple-
tree,') and is post modified by a relative clause implying pleasant circumstances (the bird's nest is
in a great location, the apple tree is overflowing with fruit). Because the poem's title is 'A Birthday,'
we can assume the girl is happy on her birthday. The ABCB rhyme pattern connects the
parallelistic couplets, amplifying the consequences of grammatical parallelism.
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;

The first and second lines are paralleled by these two lines. The phrase 'My heart is like' appears
again at the beginning of the clause, and the natural object is post modified by a relative clause
implying that all is well in its world ('halcyon' meaning calm, tranquil). As a result, there are even
more signals of birthday joy.
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.

The parallelistic structure formed in the poem's opening six lines is maintained in part but broken
in part here, resulting in an internal deviation effect and, as a result, interpretive anticipation of
meaningful transition. And the poem's final line, which deviates from the prior seven lines'
established parallelistic pattern, adds another reason: it's not just her birthday; the person she loves
has also arrived. Thus, the subject and verb "My heart are" are repeated, and the complement of
the verb is also a comparative structure. However, it excludes the words 'like' and 'only.' The first
of the two statements implies that the persona's heart is in a better state than the three natural items
with which it has previously been contrasted. In addition, the poem's first four lines' ABCB rhyme
structure is repeated in the poem's final four lines. This means that the arrival of a loved one is
linked to the 'halcyon sea' line through rhyming parallelism that reaches the end of the first of the
two lines.