Lyric Poem · Love
St. Martin's Summer
1AS swallows turning backward
2When half-way o'er the sea,
3At one word's trumpet summons
4They came again to me -
5The hopes I had forgotten
6Came back again to me.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“St. Martin's Summer” by Robert Louis Stevenson — quilloak.com/poems/st-martins-summer
Quick facts
- Poem
- St. Martin's Summer
- Poet
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Length
- 18 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Love, Nature, Hope
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
- 18 lines · 3 sestets
- Line length
- Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
- Refrains
- “I know not which to credit,”“I have dreamed a golden vision,”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
- PoetryDBSt. Martin's Summer 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 876ddf9d1959504f…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.