Lyric Poem · Nature
What shall I do when the Summer troubles
1What shall I do when the Summer troubles —
2What, when the Rose is ripe —
3What when the Eggs fly off in Music
4From the Maple Keep?
5What shall I do when the Skies a'chirrup
6Drop a Tune on me —
7When the Bee hangs all Noon in the Buttercup
8What will become of me?
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“What shall I do when the Summer troubles” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/what-shall-i-do-when-the-summer-troubles
Quick facts
- Poem
- What shall I do when the Summer troubles
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 16 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Summer
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
- 16 lines · 4 quatrains
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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
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- PoetryDBWhat shall I do when the Summer troubles by emily-dickinson, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 4dcd91005704b38b…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.