A Birthday 2
By Christina Rossetti
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.
This book grew out of a box making workshop with Sarah Bryant at Wells Summer Institute in 2013.
https://bigjumppress.blog/2013/07/15/all-box-all-the-time/
There it is on the right of the first image sitting on top of my Pied Beauty box. I knew as soon as I made this box that it was meant for this poem. The pop-up elements made the book too thick for the box so I had to add a little extra to its depth. Also had to change the decorative elements on the top to accommodate the title.
The dimensions of the box are H 5.75″ W 4″ D 2.5″. It is made of book board covered with a blue-gray Ingres paper and some beautiful marbled paper donated by David Marshal who brought his fabulous paper collection to the class and shared it. His generosity is in evidence all through the boxes we made that week.
The book is H 5.125″ W 3.25″ D 2″. The text pages are St Armand cotton paper with the pop-up elements made of paper, silk and decorative thread.
The text was designed by me on Adobe Illustrator and hand cut with numerous #11 Exacto blades.