Lyric Poem · Nature

Romance

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Reading room

1I WILL make you brooches and toys for your delight

2Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.

3I will make a palace fit for you and me,

4Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.

5I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,

6Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom,

7And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white

8In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.

9And this shall be for music when no one else is near,

10The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!

11That only I remember, that only you admire,

12Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Tip: click any line number to copy a ready-made citation for that line.

“Romance” by Robert Louis Stevenson — quilloak.com/poems/romance-stevenson

Quick facts

Poem: Romance
Poet: Robert Louis Stevenson
Length: 12 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Nature

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: 12 lines · 3 quatrains
Line length: Lines run 11-13 syllables (median 11). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

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: PoetryDBRomance 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 752574bb0912dcbb…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policy Report a text or rights issue

Lyric Poem Nature

Keep reading

She Walks in Beauty

Lord Byron · 1814

She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies;And all that's best of dark and bright

18 lines · lyric

Love's Philosophy

Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1819

The fountains mingle with the riverAnd the rivers with the ocean,The winds of heaven mix for ever

16 lines · lyric

When You Are Old

W. B. Yeats · 1893

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

12 lines · lyric

More nature poems →