Love Itself Summary

Romantic poet Christina Rossetti employs a series of similes to describe the powerful love and joy she feels in "A Birthday." Her heart, she says, is like a singing bird, an apple tree, and a rainbow but even happier because "my love is come to me." To celebrate "the birthday of my life," she would like a dais of silk and down "with vair and purple dyes," carved in birds and pomegranates, worked "in gold and silver grapes." Richard Wilbur revels in the subtleties of summer that recall his beloved in "June Light." He hears her voice calling him to the window, where he sees "all things raise plainly their seeming into seamless air." He recalls when she tossed him a summer pear that became wine before it could rot, and praises her "gay gift" that fell into his hands "through...