Wedding reading
A Birthday
Christina Rossetti
“A Birthday” by Christina Rossetti is a poem read at a wedding ceremony. It takes about 30 seconds read aloud, usually by a guest reader. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
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 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.
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
What it is about
Pure gladness, and over in half a minute.
Read at a wedding ceremony. Themes: joy · my heart is like a singing bird · exuberant · short.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “A Birthday” take to read aloud?
“A Birthday” takes about 30 seconds read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “A Birthday”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “A Birthday” runs about 30 seconds, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.
Can “A Birthday” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — and the timing that holds them together. Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole ceremony, written out, with this reading in its place.