Analysis of Christina Rosetti's "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 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.

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."

First of all, I think it's fair to say that there are loads of similies in this poem. In the first stanza alone, every other sentence uses the words 'like a', comparing her heart to a bird, a tree and a shell. I also think that the speaker of the poem is a female. I can't say it is the poet, but it seems like it is about a woman who has finally found someone to make her happy. I get the feeling that it is not an outside factor that has brought all of this joy to her, but some inner peace. She never makes any mention of a man (or woman), so it's difficult to place the cause of her happiness on one thing.

Please bear with me now because I'm going to deviate a little bit and talk about symbols. To be fair, I'm really really bad at analyzing poetry. I'm also just going to ignore the first stanza because I can't find any symbols in this. The first thing to catch my attention was when she talked about fleurs-de-lys. That could be one of two things: the fleurs-de-lys is the symbol of French royalty as well as a flower itself. The flower represents female virtue and spirituality. I think with the way the poem is structured and the diction (words used) works, it's fair to say that she means the flower itself. At least, that would work for the first verse since it deals a lot with nature. The second verse does seem to deal more with rich and material things. All in all, I think the poem is really Rosetti talking about how she doesn't need anyone else to make her happy but herself. I also think it is about her loving herself. But, as I said earlier, I'm really bad at analyzing poetry on my own.