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Lyric Poem · Nature

Over The Land Is April

by Robert Louis Stevenson

OVER the land is April,

Over my heart a rose;

Over the high, brown mountain

The sound of singing goes.

Say, love, do you hear me,

Hear my sonnets ring?

Over the high, brown mountain,

Love, do you hear me sing?

By highway, love, and byway

The snows succeed the rose.

Over the high, brown mountain

The wind of winter blows.

Say, love, do you hear me,

Hear my sonnets ring?

Over the high, brown mountain

I sound the song of spring,

I throw the flowers of spring.

Do you hear the song of spring?

Hear you the songs of spring?

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Quick facts

Poem
Over The Land Is April
Poet
Robert Louis Stevenson
Length
19 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Nature, Spring, Love

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
19 lines · 2 stanzas of 8–11 lines
Line length
Lines run 5-7 syllables (median 6), consistent with trimeter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Refrains
Over the high, brown mountainSay, love, do you hear me,Hear my sonnets ring?Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894
Source record
PoetryDBOver The Land Is April by robert-louis-stevenson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 db33477244463417
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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