Christina Rossetti’s poem “A Birthday” and Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” present conflicting attitudes toward love. In the poem and short story several literary elements and techniques were used to convey these different attitudes toward love.A simile is comparison with one thing described as if it were another, using the words “like” or “as”. A tree is a symbol used in both selections to convey there attitude towards love. In the line “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all quivering with the new spring.