{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/love-is-the-very-heart-of-spring",
 "title": "Love Is the Very Heart of Spring",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (Hitherto Unpublished)",
 "book_slug": "poems-hitherto-unpublished",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 30,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1921,
  "venue": "Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (Hitherto Unpublished) (1921)",
  "note": "The volume's title page states that these poems were hitherto unpublished, and no earlier printing of them has been established. The 1921 date is the year of first printing, but not necessarily of this exact copy: the volume states that it is a complimentary edition struck from the same type forms as the Bibliophile Society's edition of the same year.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemshithertounp00stevrich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-louis-stevenson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlvol28stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlou14stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/newpoemsandvaria00stevuoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemshithertounp00stevrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31291",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30659",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/441",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Poems,_by_Robert_Louis_Stevenson,_hitherto_unpublished"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 1
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Love is the very heart of spring;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flocks fall to loving on the lea",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And wildfowl love upon the wing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When spring first enters like a sea.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When spring first enters like a sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the heart of everything,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Bestir yourselves religiously,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Incense before love’s altar bring.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Incense before love’s altar bring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flowers from the flowering hawthorn tree,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Flowers from the margin of the spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all the flowers are sweet to see.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Love is the very heart of spring;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When spring first enters like a sea",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Incense before love’s altar bring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And flowers while flowers are sweet to see.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Bring flowers while flowers are sweet to see;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love is almighty, love’s a King,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Incense before love’s altar bring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Incense before love’s altar bring.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Love’s gifts are generous and free",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When spring first enters like a sea;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When spring first enters like a sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The birds are all inspired to sing.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Love is the very heart of spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The birds are all inspired to sing,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Love’s gifts are generous and free;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love is almighty, love’s a King.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}