Lyric Poem · Nature

What shall I do when the Summer troubles

by Emily Dickinson

What shall I do when the Summer troubles —

What, when the Rose is ripe —

What when the Eggs fly off in Music

From the Maple Keep?

What shall I do when the Skies a'chirrup

Drop a Tune on me —

When the Bee hangs all Noon in the Buttercup

What will become of me?

Oh, when the Squirrel fills His Pockets

And the Berries stare

How can I bear their jocund Faces

Thou from Here, so far?

'Twouldn't afflict a Robin —

All His Goods have Wings —

I — do not fly, so wherefore

My Perennial Things?

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“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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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.

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Lyric Poem Nature Summer

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