Title - A Birthday

• The Title 'A Birthday' can symbolise spiritual rebirth, aligning with Rossetti’s devout Christian beliefs - Rather than referencing a literal birth, the poem may signify the speaker’s soul being renewed or awakened by the arrival of divine love - This interpretation transforms the poem into a sacred celebration of grace, where love becomes the catalyst for spiritual transformation
• The Title 'A Birthday' may also suggest the birth of romantic consciousness, marking the moment love enters the speaker’s life with overwhelming force - Just as a birthday celebrates new life, the speaker’s emotional world is revived and redefined by this newfound affection - This positions love as a generative, life-affirming force capable of reshaping identity
• The Title 'A Birthday' can be seen as the arrival of personal fulfilment, a metaphorical culmination of longing or waiting - The speaker is no longer yearning but rejoicing, indicating that the long-anticipated love has finally materialised - The birthday becomes a milestone not of age, but of emotional completeness and joy
• The Title 'A Birthday' may subtly allude to the cyclical nature of time and emotion - just as birthdays recur annually, so too might moments of intense joy or renewal - This interpretation adds a temporal dimension, suggesting that the speaker’s ecstasy, though profound, may be transient or part of a larger emotional cycle - The "birthday" becomes both a pinnacle and a fleeting instant in time
• The Title 'A Birthday' may ironically hint at an absence rather than a presence - celebrating something longed for but ultimately unattainable - If the love referenced is idealised, lost, or divine rather than earthly, the birthday may reflect internal fantasy rather than reality - In this sense, the title carries a melancholic undercurrent, disguising longing beneath the poem’s lush imagery